


Star Wars: Command Echelon

by sand_dollar



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: F/M, Reylo - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-25
Updated: 2020-02-01
Packaged: 2021-02-26 07:28:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 21,693
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21959632
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sand_dollar/pseuds/sand_dollar
Summary: Star Wars: Command EchelonOn Tatooine, a recovering Ben Solo is watched over by Rey. As the once Supreme Leader’s wounds heal, Rey continues to keep Ben’s true identity a secret as well as her own bloodline.In the sudden absence of Supreme Leader Kylo Ren, the First Order and its many constituents struggle for power. As Resistance fighters continue their campaign against the remains of the First Order, General Finn sends a message to an old friend in hopes she may offer some help on a secret mission.Meanwhile, the sinister Agent Terex of the First Order takes advantage of the sudden loss of a figurehead by restoring a once forbidden initiative known only as Command Echelon.If you haven't read Katabasis yet then I'd recommend doing so as that story flows into this one. It's not a requirement, but just to clear up any confusion.
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Kudos: 31
Collections: TROS Reylo Fix-it Fics





	1. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Star Wars: Command Echelon  
> On Tatooine, a recovering Ben Solo is watched over by Rey. As the once Supreme Leader’s wounds heal, Rey continues to keep Ben’s true identity a secret as well as her own bloodline.  
> In the sudden absence of Supreme Leader Kylo Ren, the First Order and its many constituents struggle for power. As Resistance fighters continue their campaign against the remains of the First Order, General Finn sends a message to an old friend in hopes she may offer some help on a secret mission.  
> Meanwhile, the sinister Agent Terex of the First Order takes advantage of the sudden loss of a figurehead by restoring a once forbidden initiative known only as Command Echelon.

The flurry of sand and cold desert air whipped up some kind of nightmare in Ben Solo. One without screams, but instead a pair of silent, pleading eyes. His father’s eyes, Han Solo. Red across the old man’s face, acceptance of the act flashed in Han’s eyes, and then finally the fall. One held breath, and the burning of lungs never to be fed again pulsed in Ben’s chest. He didn’t wake up from this nightmare, but Rey did. Curled up in a ragged quilt, Rey walked the line between sleep and restlessness as she laid on the recliner next to Ben. Reaching her hand over the space between them, Rey touched the back of Ben’s neck.

 _A fever again_? Rey questioned. Sitting up, the woman pressed her hand against Ben’s forehead, feeling the hot skin. A bit perturbed, Rey reminded herself that Ben wanted it this way. He wanted to heal, and that’s all he’d done since returning. The moment Rey helped him to the recliner, he’d passed out into sleep. Rey had cleaned his wounds and addressed them as best she could, but still a few remained including the angry break in his leg. Rey watched the man sleep, the air passing through him in no way indicating the nightmares brewing in his head, those same nightmares pounded in her chest. Counting the days since his arrival, Rey took note of her dwindling supplies. Ben needed more medicine, they both needed food, and the Falcon needed a new compressor. Crawling over Ben, Rey got out of the recliner, grabbed her cloak, concealed her lightsaber, and covered her face.

The conversations between Rey and Ben were few, but the one they did have before Ben fell back asleep was the importance of hiding their identity. With Ben back, it was only a matter of time before the First Order found out and labeled him a traitor. It was possible that the Resistance and the First Order would send their bounty hunters after him and while Rey could probably sway the Resistance, the First Order was a different issue. In both cases, Rey wanted as much time as possible. The longer Ben could be a secret, the safer they’d both be.

At the door, Rey looked over her shoulder. Ben’s nightmare passed and while his breathing evened Rey found that wasn’t what caught her attention. A croon in the Force, as if Ben’s mind turned to dreams; running, even laughing. Rey hesitated at the door, wanting to know what did make Ben happy. The answer made her smile causing a curious BB-8 to inquire. 

“Nothing, BB-8. Keep an eye on him. I’ll be back soon.”

Hidden tunnels throughout Mos Eisley provided a not so safe, but at least obscured way for Rey to enter the city. To her gain, Mos Eisley boasted of more criminals in a single place than Rey had ever seen. It was easy to fit in since most kept their heads down. A couple of Hutts with their entourage, all of whom were wanted for spice and slave trafficking. A bounty droid with illegal weapons, a Defel wanted for murder in two systems, a pair of ex-Stormtroopers who got out before the end of the war, and the list went on. A hot gag ran through the city as the suns rose and people began to flood the streets. Smells of exotic fruits poisonous to some patrons, but tasty to others, meat, Bantha milk, stands selling parts and for a high price and a wink, weapons as well. Swiftly, Rey dodged trouble makers, those looking for a fight, and made her last purchase; medicine.

“What’s this?” Rey questioned, picking up an ochre cane. A feisty Aqualish yelled out a price with an open hand.

“Gimer bush?” Rey questioned the substance and finding it to be of value handed over the price.

In a rush, Rey made her way back to the tunnels with thoughts of home where she could relieve herself of the many layers she hid behind. The tunnels were always packed, always crowded towards the city center, but some ways down and outside the city they cleared up. Smelling of rotten produce and sweat, the tunnels, while shaded, offered little respite from the heat. Her bags in hand and the quiet pat of her shoes on the sand became a call to her. A reminder of how thankful she was to be out of Jakku and away from the lonely AT-AT she lived in for so long.

“Anything good?” Ben’s voice, a bit strained, but otherwise cheerful asked. Turning, Rey had choice words for the man if he wasn’t concealed. Already sensing the annoyance, Ben smiled.

“You’re not supposed to be away from home. It’s too dangerous.” Rey said, pulling a bit of the cloth from her face.

 _A funny thing to say to someone who could pull a vessel from the air_ , Ben thought.

“Technically, I’m not.” Ben leaned against Rey’s staff, the one she’d left next to the recliner should he need it to get around.

“That reminds me.” From insider her robe, Rey pulled out the gimer cane and using the hook at its top, she hung it on Ben’s shoulder.

“There you go, old man.” The jib earned a chuckle, one that Rey cracked a smile over. Taking up her walk, Ben followed Rey in a limp, using his new cane to keep him balanced.

“How are you feeling? Rey asked and Ben’s answer came in the form of a shrug.

“Is your fever gone?”

“Yup, I think so.” Ben went silent, not willing to evade the next question he knew was coming from Rey.

“You had another nightmare last night.” Ben didn’t deny it. There was no point.

“I’m sorry if it woke you.” Ben’s apology was a ruse, a way to get the attention off of him.

“That’s not the point.” Rey stopped and pulled the rest of the cloth covering her face down. In the shade of the tunnel, Ben looked as any other man just walking home. A careful smile with kind eyes, it was almost impossible for Rey to remember what it was like fighting him. Ben raised his eyebrows.

“When I’m better we’ll pick up that fight on the Death Star where we left off.”

“Ben?” Rey frowned, and the gesture reflected in Ben. He hated disappointing her.

 _But she keeps things from me too_ , Ben thought, _sometimes it’s like she’s an island all her own. Completely adrift and unmoored._ A smile breezed over Ben’s lips, something hidden.

 _And I’d admire her still if all I could do was swim around her for the rest of my life._ Ben loved Rey for her soft aloofness, the way she shook off things, the way she continued despite gruesome setbacks, but sometimes she asked questions Ben didn’t have a way of answering.

“I’m trying.” Ben admitted, offering an open hand, Ben took the supplies Rey carried and disappeared back to the homestead.

Upon entry to the homestead, Rey removed the many layers keeping her from a fresh breath of air while BB-8 updated Rey on the comings and goings around the home.

“I know BB-8,” Rey said to the droid’s accusation that he’d seen Ben wandering around outside without any coverage.

“I’ll talk to him.” Lately, the droid had made a game of accusing Ben of anything from using her staff to crossing the courtyard.

In the galley, Rey found Ben cooking the food she’d handed over to him. The cane she’d given him was already being put to use as Ben walked from one side of the galley to the next.

“Tea?” Ben asked, not looking up.

“Thanks.” She whispered and leaning back against the counter space she watched Ben chop vegetables, prepare the broth, and sear meat.

“Who taught you to cook?” Rey asked over the cup, Ben shrugged and then found some way inside himself to talk of the past.

“My uncle, mostly.” Already Rey could see how the exertion of moving so much was taxing to Ben. As much as he clung to the Force, he inhaled deeply, and his hand regularly flew to his leg when the pain became too much.

“Did you take the medicine?” Rey asked as she slipped between him and the counter. Running her hands over his forehead and hair, the woman frowned. His fever was better, but wasn’t entirely gone.

“Go back to bed. I’ll take care of the rest of this.” It was a whisper and one Ben didn’t disagree with. With a slow nod, Ben grabbed his cane and crossed the courtyard with BB-8 right behind making his displeasure known. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey shares concerns with BB-8 and Ben has a nightmare.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey neighbors!  
> SPOILERS!!!! If you haven’t seen The Rise of Skywalker then please do not continue SPOILERS. 
> 
> A few things before I start this story. I don’t get to read fan fiction...like at all in nearly a year. A lot of this has to do with my own writing projects and work and keeping up with the fandom. However, I love Ben and Rey so much and I have to write something after seeing TROS. I want to say that I’m here till the end, till I can’t write anymore, till the world freezes over and all I have left is a cave to draw my story on. I’m here and I hope you all will be here with me.
> 
> For anyone who has read Novem, thank you. I will be finishing it up and while I do I’ll be posting my new story. With the new story I want to move away from the 500-1000 word count per post to something more in-depth and chapter like, this being said I might not be able to post every week, but know I will strive to do so.
> 
> I think the world of the brilliant, talented, incredible people that make up this group. From the podcasts to art, all of it is special and please know what makes this fandom truly memorable are all of you!
> 
> “No one’s ever really gone.” -Luke Skywalker

Rey suspected she’d find Ben passed out when she returned, something she’d never understand when it came to a meal. In a private joke known only to herself, but one Ben was beginning to pick up on, Rey seldom turned down a meal and the thought of someone doing so was inconceivable. In Ben’s defense, he was healing, but still…

“He better eat something today,” Rey mumbled to herself before entering the den. The scene before Rey was one of a droid barking out harsh accusations to Ben’s back as he slept. Crossing over the sleeping form, Rey took her place in the back corner of the recliner before placing a bowl of food in front of Ben. Beginning to eat her serving, Rey paused mid-chew. A roll of fire, followed by a sweet tang touched her tongue and as she chewed so evolved the ever light taste to something more mouthwatering. 

“What did you put in this?” Rey asked, glancing at Ben who watched her through barely opened eyes.

“Tomo-spice.” The man turned over to his back but refused to sit up from there.

“This is amazing,” Rey spoke through a full mouth.

“If you had let me finish, there’d be bread to go with it.”

 _Bread, oh that would be perfect_ , Rey thought.

“If I’d let you finish you’d be passed out on the galley floor.” Rey shot back, but the repose was slowed by her chewing. At the recliner side BB-8 took up the spew of rhetoric Ben was so used to hearing from Rey when he wouldn’t eat.

“Maybe you should get your optics checked, droid. I cooked. Me turning down a meal isn’t going to offend her. If anything it’ll just piss her off.” The beeps subsided, but were quickly picked back up as BB-8 indicated Ben should take that stick of his and walk out into the next electrical storm.

“Fine. Will, it shut you up?” BB-8 went silent in response. Sitting up, Ben glanced at his serving and leaning towards Rey, shuffled half onto her plate. Taking a bite, the man grimaced.

“What?” Rey asked, bewildered. 

“This would have been really good with bread.”

A typical day, at least what had become routine for Ben and Rey, emerged over the homestead. Rey, along with BB-8, left Ben to rest as she took up a growing list of chores. Two of the coolth units still needed to be fixed, the storage area, while now cleared, required patchwork after a long term womp rat infestation, the hydrolic chamber needed work, the garage was a mess, and Rey desperately wanted to get the hydroponic garden up and running. Hand held over her brow, Rey counted the hours she had.

“If you clear the womp rats out of the storage area, they’ll be an oil bath in it for you.” The droid seemed to consider the offer before whistling loudly and taking off across the courtyard for the storage area.

In silence, Rey worked over the coolth units, removing ruined wires, and replacing them with new ones. A few cuts here and there were nothing compared to the breeze that flowed once she was done.

“There, now the rest of the homestead has cool air.” Rey never minded the heat too much, but BB-8 often complained of the excessive heat and wear it had on his gears. As for Ben, he never complained…about anything.

“I wonder where he was born?” Rey couldn’t imagine a toddler Ben roaming with his mother and father across dunes under excessive heat. Ben’s accent, as well, seemed to hail from the core worlds.

“Coruscant, maybe?” A fast life didn’t seem to suit him either. No, when Rey considered Ben, she often found her mind blank, answerless. She knew Ben traveled with Luke, that much she’d gotten from Leia and from some of the journals Luke kept that mentioned his nephew. Together the uncle-nephew duo traveled to far off places, met hundreds of people, and no doubt garnered many stories. Rey wanted to know Ben, wanted to hear his stories, but it seemed the closer she got the fewer answers he had.

Pulling an old piece of metal from the garage, Rey started the stout task of cleaning. The smell of sullied oil clung in the air even as cooler air circulated. All around were partial pieces of metal, broken tools, trash, and what used to be full containers of oil. Whatever was of use had been stolen long ago and everything that wasn’t was left behind for the storms to claim. BB-8 entered the garage with questions wrapped in awe and excitement.

“Yes, this can be your room if you want.” Rey smiled at the droid who began roaming the floor, looking for more womp rats. Moments of silence ended when BB-8 activated the door and with a piercing rejection, slowly opened to a built-up mound of sand that came flooding in. Exchanging looks with the Jedi, the droid rolled behind coverage with a hollow beep as an apology.

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll start a fire, and maybe we can begin to burn some of this stuff.” Under the blaze of such a hot day, it was unlikely the fire would attract attention and even if it did, it wasn’t like Rey couldn’t defend herself without a weapon. Piece by piece Rey dragged or used other, more clandestine methods of removal, to clear out the garage while BB-8 freed the hollow of the dreaded rats and sand.

“Nothing’s wrong,” Rey answered BB-8’s inquiry after several hours of silent working.

“I mean…” Rey huffed and took a seat on the ledge of the oil bath.

“I know he trusts me, and I trust him. We’re open to each other because of the connection, and he really does try to be open on his own terms. I don’t know, it’s like his entire life was just him and no matter how many people were around him, Ben was always alone. In the same way it’s difficult for me to speak of my past, it is for Ben to speak of his, like its taboo or something.” BB-8 didn’t know what to say to that, so instead turned to consolation.

“You’d think we’d both be free of pain after everything we’ve been through, but it turns out we’ve only just begun.” Rey wasn’t sad over her confession, not even slightly put off, but there was that pain and at the thought of pain came considerations for its remedy.

“I think we’ve done well for the day.” Glancing over her shoulder, Rey noticed for the first time it was night.

“How about you get that oil bath first thing tomorrow?”

A scathe across Rey’s consciousness shook her awake and thinking she’d open her eyes to an earthquake, the woman gasped and sat straight up. In the den’s darkness, Rey’s bewildered gaze ran around the room, searching and waiting for the next tremor, for some conclusion to the nightmare that seem to strike at her core. A soft pelt in the Force, like snow, drew Rey from her search and down to a pair of shining eyes. The flay, the thing that woke her up, might as well have been a wound and one that bled freely from Ben. A reprieve in the form of Rey’s warm hand across the place the scar used to be lessened the pain. There, at Rey’s fingertips, flashed Han’s final moments and after the fall came unrelenting hurt and a well of words mixed with such a fierce loathing, the woman was brought to tears. Using her thumb, Rey brushed the single tear running down Ben’s cheek, and in every capacity lent to her by the Force, she blocked the memory, fleshed it away until it was vapor.

A grateful sigh breached the man’s lips, and the once tense body eased at the passing of a great burden. Rey was all too familiar with such thoughts, the kind that sink and swim in the backs of minds like monsters beneath the water. She waited, her eyes locked with Ben’s and a hand over his thrashing heart, and breathed with him until he was calm. Rey’s mind was made up when she wrapped her arms around his neck, pulled herself closer only to find that Ben, from head to toe, was cold. 

_He’s freezing_ , thought Rey. The tears came back as Rey pulled the quilt she was using and placed it over the one Ben already had covering him. Rey felt Ben move an arm and seemingly hover over her side, contemplating if he was going to do the same and encircle her waist. The arm dropped, and Ben pulled away, rising from the recliner he found his cane close by and walked outside in a night that would do nothing to warm him.

Dejected, but accepting, Rey let him go.

 _If he needs space_ …she thought, but recouped the idea.

 _Eventually, he’s going to get it in his head that I’m not going anywhere, and when he does, there will be less pain for both of us_. 


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey is contacted by Finn.

BB-8, for what it was worth, tried to comfort when he could. Often this meant tossing himself into situations he was unfamiliar with and hoping it wouldn’t cause more drama or heartache or confusion. After all, he wasn’t C-3PO. While powered down for the night, his programming only allowed the state so long as there wasn’t an outside source impeding the action. In this case, a quickened heart rate as if the person within his proximity was caught off guard by an enemy, this was the circumstance several times when BB-8 was with Poe. Now it was different. BB-8 powered up to find Rey awake, half-covered by her worn quilt, and the place next to her empty. For BB-8 waking up in the middle of the night was becoming a common occurrence since following Rey to Tatooine. Rey was never one for full nights of sleep and it was only days ago when she ventured from her bed, to the desert, and returned with the enemy. The droid suspected the quickened heart rate had to do with more than an attack, perhaps something R2-D2 dragged on about when it came to Luke Skywalker and the Force.

Rolling from his resting place, BB-8 looked up at Rey as she kept her eyes on the closed door. Poe carried that same look from time to time, one BB-8 associated with sleepless nights and constant pacing. Prepared to ask Rey what had her so unhappy, the droid stopped himself and pivoted around the room looking for the enemy. The answer was clear, even to the droid; the enemy wasn’t here and Rey didn’t like that. In a complete twist of a story, BB-8 recalled that the enemy was no longer an enemy, but someone of importance to Rey. Something akin to a groan left the droid and he rolled towards the door and outside.

A quick scan found the once-enemy sitting in the galley, sipping tea with the lights on. BB-8 rolled across the courtyard and the once-enemy didn’t raise his head in greeting, he certainly was nothing like Poe. Staring up at the man, BB-8 remembered Poe and all the wounds inflicted on him while in Kylo Ren’s custody. Distress raced through the droid, but before it could be vocalized BB-8 noticed something else. Tears, hot, angry tears treading down the one-enemy's face. Exhausted, overdrawn in ways BB-8 had seen again and again with Rey were now imprinted on the man’s face, his heart, as well, beat uncontrollably. Rolling closer the droid cocked his head and in a partial mistake, inquired what had the once-enemy so upset. For the first time since his arrival, the man looked to the droid, his face free of suspicion and after a moment, he answered.

“I want to make her happy but,” The man stopped, grasped for words, and then shook his head.

BB-8 whistled on about what made Poe happy, the only human he knew well enough to make such bold statements. To the droid’s surprise, the man listened patiently completely opposite of the beast he once was. Rolling closer, BB-8 waited for a response.

“Well…I’m not Finn and a new X-wing for Rey would probably raise some unfavorable questions.” The once-enemy stared across the courtyard and then to the garage.

“I heard Rey promised you an oil bath?”

BB-8 possessed an inclination for people who knew their way around broken machinery, people who didn’t give up when their diagnostics were incorrect or repairs not sound enough. For the droid, it was a matter of principle not to discard something worth repairing especially when that something was easily replaceable. In fascination, the droid watched the once-enemy restore the broken oil bath, a tool in one hand and light in the other, the man never swayed into a frenzy. A cracked collar, rusted gears, ill-fitting spindle, the man worked through each problem until a final flick of the initiator rendered the bath fixed as it hummed to life. Again, so mindful, the once-enemy didn’t assume BB-8 needed help up, he asked. An excited torrent of whistles left BB-8 as the golden oil raised to cover him and for the first time since his stay on D’Qar, the droid felt clean.

Out of curiosity, the droid asked what the once-enemy preferred to be called.

“No, don’t call me master. C-3PO did that enough when I was a kid. Just call me Ben.” In a low whistle, the droid agreed and then decided to push his luck.

“I was born on Chandrila.” A short answer with no room for more of an explanation, the droid went quiet a moment and just watched. Hesitating, almost considering the act to be a silly one, Ben ran a bare hand over different areas in the garage. The wall, a bench, a table, tools that somehow weren’t stolen by Jawas, until finally resting in one place long enough for Ben to close his eyes. The droid was curious about this as well and inquired quietly, giving Ben the chance to ignore him if he wanted to.

“Sometimes, I see things when I touch objects. Like a frozen memory playing over and over again in the Force.” BB-8 thought of the many messages he’d carried from one destination to the next and asked if it were the same thing.

“You could say that, but sometimes what I see…” Ben stopped and took a seat at the table facing BB-8.

“I see both the important and the irrelevant. This tool, for example,” Ben held up a slender piece of rusted metal.

“I know my uncle used this tool on R2-D2. It’s not important, but that’s what I see.” Toying with the instrument, Ben listed on the memory a bit longer before placing the tool back where he found it. As suddenly as the conversation began, it ended and perhaps sensing what was to come next, Ben stood up to help BB-8 from the bath.

A call, one marked as critical and coded to prevent any mishandle. Finishing the bath early, BB-8 rolled to Rey’s bedside as fast as possible to find her wide awake.

“Finn?” Rey sat, attempting to stretch away her exhaustion.

A peaceful blue took over the otherwise darkened room and Finn appeared looking as he always did, but somehow completely different. Where ever he was daylight consumed the background, and some dashed his face, making his skin glow. The two friends when silent in the presence of each other, each taking in the other with mixed sadness and joy. 

“Being a general suits you,” Rey commented with a smile. 

“I didn’t mean to wake you.” Finn apologized.

“You didn’t.” Rey didn’t want to lie, so left the response there.

“I uh…have a request if you’d be willing to hear me out.” Finn began, obviously unsure how to walk the line between friendship and general.

“Finn…” Raised eyebrows told the man whatever he had to say, at whatever time would be heard. Finn nodded and continued.

“We have…had a First Order captain in our custody. There was a small, unplanned skirmish on Endor…everyone is okay, but the First Order troops we found there seemed to be just as surprised at our being there as we were of them. The whole thing felt off and even more so when they all turned themselves in. We haven’t been able to get much out of them, and we think that has to do with how little they knew about the mission they were on. However, one of them knew more than the others. He mentioned a planet, Sullust, before he died. He said they were moving critical supplies to Sullust for a top-secret mission by high ranking First Order operatives. We searched Endor for the supplies, never found anything. The whole thing reeks of cover-ups and that has Poe and me wondering what more is going on. We can’t spare a mission to Sullust and even if we did, there’s a possibility we wouldn’t find anything. The First Order is very talented when it comes to cover-ups.” Finn finished and despite the distance between them, Rey sensed concern, maybe even dread.

“You want me to go to Sullust. I’ll do what I can. I’ll report back to you as soon as I have something.”

“You’ll do what you can? That doesn’t sound like you?” Finn asked gently, trying to understand. A lag between the two kept Finn from ending the transmission. There was so much more to say.

“How are you doing?” Finn asked and regretted not contacting her sooner.

 _She’s so tired, like she hasn’t slept in days_ , Finn thought. Rey wanted to tell Finn everything about what happened on Exegol and afterwards, but it wasn’t just her story to tell and if she did, what would happen?

“I’m fine, Finn. Tired, but alive and well.” Maybe it was the darkness, maybe something more, but Finn saw the spark, the light flaring wildly in Rey’s eyes like a live wire.

 _She really is a survivor_ , Finn smiled.

“Take care of yourself, Rey. I’ll see you soon.” The transmission ended and once again the room was left to darkness.

Moments after leaving BB-8 to roam off and tell Rey about the call, Ben left for the galley to brew some fresh tea and this time enough for two. From his side of the courtyard, Ben traced every emotion Rey had about the call, like running his fingertips over water emotions slipped by both of joy and concern. He heard the den door open and watched Rey cross the courtyard with a blanket tucked around her body and BB-8 following close behind with fewer complaints. Entering the light of the galley, Rey took the seat across from Ben and accepted the warm cup of tea.

 _She’s brewing something in that head of hers_ , Ben thought. _She’s uncomfortable about asking something of me_. 

“Why are you uncomfortable?” Ben asked, dark eyes resting on Rey’s.

“Because I have to ask you to help the Resistance and I don’t know how you’d feel about it.” She aired her worry, but there were more.

“What do they need?”

“Were you aware of any secret operations taking place on Sullust?” Rey leaned forward, her glance dancing with hope. Ben crossed his arms and leaned back a bit, his mind recollecting the many meetings he had over the year he was Supreme Leader when Snoke was gone, and the number of secrets the First Order had were few when it came to him.

“After Snoke…” Ben started, and from the inside out, he shook something fierce, something made of equal parts anger and agony.

“After Snoke, there was a not so well known crusade. One led by First Order scientists. They were secretive, and I saw them as unproductive, so I put pressure on them to terminate their project. They said they did, they didn’t, so I put more pressure on them.”

“What kind of pressure?” Rey asked and wasn’t surprised by the answer.

“I killed their leader,” Ben frowned and slouched a bit before continuing.

“And a few of their head scientists. And maybe I burned down their lab, the one on Sullust.”

“What were they doing?”

“I’m unsure. The records were never handed over to me. I remember them calling it ‘command echelon’.”

“Command echelon.” Rey’s mind tumbled, attempting to find an answer in two words. In a sigh, Rey half-smiled at Ben.

“I have to go to Sullust. Think you can handle this place on your own for a few days?” At the question, Ben sat up, a smirk on his face. Leaning forward, he took Rey’s hand now warmed by the cup of tea.

“What makes you think you’re going alone?”


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey and Ben leave for Sullust.

Watching the homestead from the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon, Rey’s eyes tracked Ben from the entryway. His cane did well against the earth and his gate broadened with the ease of pain; still she had worries. Sensing Rey’s eyes on him, Ben glanced up and smiled before ducking under the Falcon and boarding.

In an instant, the air changed as if lighting had just shot through the vessel and fried the circuitry spinning the Falcon into darkness. It was Ben, and all the memories of this place he dragged with him. Bumping along the metal grate each step brought on some unkind phantom with an edge of gold. A tumbling mind shifted and Ben clung to the gold, to the light, and its adjuration. Rey listened to Ben’s approaching footsteps, the momentary breaks that cascaded with recall, and when Rey thought she couldn’t take it any longer, she rose only to find Ben behind her and making his way to the co-pilot’s seat. Hanging his cane on a panel, Ben assumed the seat and took to the plethora of tasks awaiting someone in his position.

Rey waited, feeling the slow turn of air as Ben chipped away his own silence.

“He changed the primer.” He admitted out loud about his father.

“That was Unkar Plutt. I’ve repaired most of his modifications, but I’m sure there’s more I don’t know about.” Behind the two, BB-8 added his own addendum to the Falcon’s growing list of issues.

“Somebody used the Falcon for lightspeed skipping?” The accusation came with a slightly agape mouth, tone and all it reminded Rey of Han.

“Yeah, that’d be Poe.” Rey shook her head, catching BB-8’s use of Ben’s name. Turning around in her seat, she leaned forward, fixing her gaze on the droid who shook his head vigorously.

“Wait, you never call him Ben.” BB-8 lied and responded that he had, in fact, referred to the once-enemy as Ben on several occasions.

“I’ve never heard you call him Ben.” Glancing to Ben back to BB-8, Rey’s suspicion grew.

“What happened between you two?” BB-8 refused to answer, leaving Ben to cough up the truth.

“We had a moment.” Ben went back to his tasks, ignoring the mock glare Rey bored into him. Rey opened her mouth, ready to make her mind known, but she dropped the annoyance and instead huffed out her grievance before igniting the Millennium Falcon and taking off.

Sullust, a basaltic of a planet with lava and brilliant lakes, churned against the oblivion of space. Nearing the planet’s atmosphere, Rey began her pulling, a rove as she tried to connect with something, anything.

“The lab was just outside an abandoned enclave,” Ben mentioned before fixing the Millennium Falcon’s navigation route to take them to the point of interest.

“This place reminds me...” Rey began, but it seemed so far away as if decades had passed since she met Obi-Wan.

“What?” Ben asked his full attention on her.

“What did you see? When you were gone, you saw something. Sometimes I feel it in your nightmares. It’s like a fire, a safe place you keep returning to.” Even now, as Rey dipped her attention into the Force it was impossible for her to ignore that burning fire of pure light within Ben.

“You saw something too?” Rey nodded to Ben’s question.

“I saw my family.” Ben stammered.

“Han, Leia, and Luke?”

“Not just them. My mother’s parents, who adopted her. I saw my grandfather too, and the Jedi of the past. Rey it…” Ben stopped, his voice cracking, and mind spiraling into unfound land, into a place many claimed to be nonexistent but was all too real for Ben. The fire Rey spoke of flowed unhindered and staunch as the laws of space in Ben’s eyes. This was something, perhaps the first part of Ben that could not be manipulated. Gently and with plead threaded through the Force, Ben extended his hand and Rey took it willingly. Warmth like she’d never known, light forever, dancing halls with whispered truths, scathed healing as what was damaged began to peel away, and from it all an enveloped integrity. In a whisper, more in the Force than from moving lips Ben confessed a fear he never had before.

“I don’t know if I can do this.” For a moment, Rey didn’t need to breathe as what she could only think to call a double life filled her lungs tenfold.

 _How is it possible to come from such a place_ , Rey thought.

“It’s not about knowing Ben, it’s about accepting.” Panting, Rey recovered from the dizzying pull.

“They asked you to…” Rey swallowed back tears, trying to collect the many voices that had rushed through her head.

“Alderaan, protect its people. Release the slaves. Uphold the life debt. Bury the students. Rebuild the Church of the Force.” There was one more attached to a voice Rey shuttered to hear. Overcome with her father’s voice in her head, Ben held Rey’s upper arm as the woman nearly fell from her seat.

“Rey your parents loved you so much,” Ben whispered. Lifting her head, the man implored Rey to listen to every word spoken by her father, no matter how much it hurt. Bringing her into his arms, Ben repeated his sentiments, promising Rey it was better to hear her father’s voice than never at all. Fingers intertwined with the fabric of Ben’s shirt, Rey leaned completely into the only space she felt safe in.

“What did you say to my father? He asked of me, what did you tell him?” The answer would have to come at a later time as BB-8 spiraled into the cockpit with news.

“Bodies?” Rey asked over Ben’s shoulder.

“Lots of them,” Ben confirmed when BB-8 didn’t answer.

In an abandoned hangar, Rey landed the Millennium Falcon and had BB-8 secure it first before Ben and her disembarked.

“Air isn’t really breathable,” Rey mumbled as she watched BB-8 from the cockpit find the control panel to the entire hangar.

“What do you feel?” Rey asked with eyes locked on the bits of Sullust she could see. The red earth breaching with rock and lava, the whole planet seemed to be unforgiving, but that was just the surface. Below the foundation were empty homes that once flourished with a good people.

“I don’t feel an enemy, but whatever we find here isn’t going to be pleasing to see.” True, this place, as much as Rey could dig into it, leaked with sadness, with hollow screams.

“The lab was about a kilometer west from here. The scientists lived either on the vessel they brought with them or down below in the cave system.” With his cane in hand, Ben leaned to one side, taking in the massive hangar, the lack of vessels, and the red dust left behind by the wind. 

Exiting the hangar into a darkened central hallway revealed even less of an answer to what happened to the people who used to live here.

“These homes were vacated once, used again by the First Order, and then vacated a second time after I ended the project.”

“How do you know they vacated more than once?” Rey asked, leading the way into the tunnel system. When Ben didn’t answer, Rey turned to find him gazing at written words on a wall.

“Turn away, Alderaan.” Rey read the words out loud.

“My mother’s people fled here once, and when it was no longer safe for them to remain, she helped them flee.” Ben ran his hand over the words and didn’t shutter when the rowing fits of madness touched his mind.

“Absolute madness.” A dead silence followed Ben’s words as if the quiet were an unwelcoming host bent on chasing the unwanted from its halls. Taking the lead once again, Rey walked into the darkness with Ben by her side and BB-8 close by. Beyond the central hallway, a shaft provided an entrance into what used to be the compound used by the First Order. A short wall at the end gave the two a cliff to stand from and look out over the small compound.

“BB-8, can we get some light?” Rey asked, and BB-8 rushed to the nearest panel and began turning the gears until a weak flood of light gave. There, on the ground and scattered as fallen brush from a mighty storm, were the skeletal remains of a dozen people. Not shot by blaster, not cut down by some machinery, but dead by something else. 


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ben teaches Rey a new trick.

Red earth extended beyond the bodies and revealed small homes once lived in and long forgotten. Dark hallways where the light didn’t touch gave way to the idea there could be more present, but Ben shook off the inclination. There was nothing left here. Descending the stairs, Ben counted every body and included each as one he was ultimately responsible for ending, if not by his own saber than by the weapon that had become the First Order.

“First Order prisoners,” Rey mentioned at the faded fabric still clothing the bodies. Bending down close to one skeleton, Ben reached out a hand and with his fingertips, touched the dirtied cloth. A blaze of light rushed through Ben as coughing screams filled his head and a beat of illness as if his very core had become too heavy to support.

“They passed of sickness.” Ben turned to look at Rey, who glanced at his fingertips before returning her gaze to him.

“What could have made them sick down here?” From behind BB-8 whirled out an answer.

“There’s a tunnel down here leading to the lab. Maybe we take it and find our answer?” Even as Rey said these words, she felt a shutter in Ben, not a fear, but more like a heavy truth.

As Rey considered it, Ben and she had worked little together, and from the time she’d met him to now, it dawned on her that there was more to learn of the man. For one, he was a collector of information and if a hurry wasn’t pulsing through him, he did what he could to understand the entirety of the situation. While venturing down the tunnel BB-8 indicated, the one leading to the lab, on more than one occasion, Rey looked over her shoulder to find Ben with his hand touching the wall, an old Stormtrooper helmet, the earth, and whatever else he came across. As if locked in his mind, the man silently considered whatever flashed through him before moving on to the next bit of evidence. Had this been anyone else, it would have annoyed Rey, but more and more Rey found herself paying less attention to the path and more to Ben’s manner. Sorrow, the same kind that kept him awake or shook him with nightmares, roared in Ben’s mind, but the man seemed to ignore it for the time being. He felt responsible for the deaths of those prisoners, ones that were probably innocent of wrongdoing, and it only seemed correct in Ben’s mind to offer what little peace there was.

With ease, this man touched a surface and like a babbling river, Ben’s mind turned to words. Transfixed, Rey remembered the first time she touched the lightsaber at Maz’s castle. The knockback had been so strong. Even Ochi’s blade used to find the wayfinder contained potent memories that had Rey not been the skilled Jedi she was it would have been possible to succumb to the absolute madness residing in the device.

Rey’s curiosity reached Ben, and when it did the man stood from his focus and joined her where she stood. The tunnel and its rocky exterior were a good place to start. Extending his hand, Ben’s fingertips barely grazed the wall. With closed eyes and an inhale, the kind taken before a dive into water, Rey rested her hand on top of Ben’s with her fingertips just above his.

A manifold experience swept over Rey, filling her with a razor dare at first, but there beneath the first touch was something more. A sensitivity caressed the woman’s mind immediately putting her at ease, not in the way a drug does a patient, but more organic and lush as a kind sun over a calm ocean. An exhale escaped Rey’s lips as she settled in, her eyes remained closed, but even then she felt Ben’s solicitude holding her. A fit of coughing bounced in Rey’s mind, followed by the mumblings of scholars and promises of something more powerful. That was it, the shape of something from the past, and then it ended.

“What kind of scientists worked here?” Rey asked.

“Doctors mostly. Engineers of disease.” Ben’s answer stemmed from the darkness from all that he’d touched. A gentle nudge at her waist from Ben and Rey dropped the memory and gave it no more permission to follow her.

“You think they cooked something up in here?” Rey asked.

“I think it’s possible they were looking for new ways to gain something from the galaxy.”

“A financial gain?”

“That, and maybe power. I wasn’t exactly the first choice for Supreme Leader. There were many who wanted me dead and even more willing to help make that happen if it meant power for themselves.” Kylo Ren’s brute force wasn’t something to tempt, Rey knew this from experience, so the idea of someone attacking the Supreme Leader would have to come from a different angle.

Rey and Ben exited the tunnel to the charred remains of a utility door. Blaster shots and lightsaber markings scarred the metal and the walls of the hallway beyond it.

“They barricaded themselves in here. A move I thought unusual.” Entering the lab, it was a mess of flipped tables, broken glass, brutalized doorways, and the promise the trail would go cold. A shine in the corner of Rey’s eye focused her attention on a dimmed First Order beacon. The light was long gone, but something of more importance remained. Gently, in the manner Ben showed her, Rey touched the beacon and first calmed herself before hearing the story being told. More voices flooded her mind, both rough and yelling. Rey couldn’t make out the voices, but a yell ruptured the memory and as it cleared a single name came to mind.

“Terex.” Rey said.

“What did you say?” Ben asked, and BB-8 answered. Detaching herself from the beacon, from the memory oozing from it, Rey asked.

“Does that name mean anything to you?”

“This wasn’t the main lab.” Ben leaned into the co-pilot seat, rubbing his leg.

“And that beacon was used to keep in contact with someone.” He continued before looking to Rey.

“Agent Terex works with the First Order does a lot the dirty work associated with some of the more difficult situations. I’m unsure of what his role is in all of this as his name never came up.”

“It wasn’t meant to,” Rey added. Rey sensed an upheaval within Ben as the sudden urge to recoil from injury muzzled him.

“BB-8 says Poe might have some information on his whereabouts. I’m going to contact him. Do you mind getting us off this rock?” Ben nodded and slowly, still attached to some idea in his, made his way to the recently vacated pilot’s seat. Kylo Ren had many disinclinations when it came to Agent Terex; his long-standing hostility for anything that wasn’t strictly imperial, his drive to overturn any idea that wasn’t his own, and the deep hatred the man nurtured regarding mystic practice, something he quickly spread to others. Agent Terex had always reviled Kylo Ren, saw him as nothing more than some unnatural being cloaked and protected only by his attachment to the Force. In ways so sick and full of practiced impulse, Agent Terex swore to himself he help create a galaxy free of such insipid beliefs and while Kylo Ren was inclined to kill Agent Terex over such a mistaken ideology, Ben Solo restlessly fought with himself over what to do when the two inevitably had to meet again.

“Ben?”

“Did you hear me?” Rey asked. Ben turned in the pilot’s seat to give Rey his full attention.

“Poe said the last he heard of Agent Terex he was on Corellia.”

After entering hyperspace, Ben wandered from his seat, cane in hand, and lost himself into thought. From one end to the next, Ben paced the vessel ignoring the memories that begged for his attention and instead floundered in the dread that came with a burning he knew all too well. His mother, his father, while they had spoken to him in a place both here and there, it was still with merciless pain did he conjure up thoughts of them. Enveloped in a ship boasting of nearly everything having to do with them and now in a position that would take him to his father’s home, it was like suffocating on the past with no means to ever surface.

“What is it about Corellia that has you so…” Rey’s question posed quietly behind Ben, ended in the firm will to alleviate. She hated to watch him suffer and this alone was enough for Ben to wish himself gone.

“My father was born there.” An answer forced through gritted teeth, Ben tried to speak again but found himself wrapped in numbness. A thousand beginnings raced through Rey’s mind. The many ways she wanted to help heal him, but all their endings stared at Ben himself. Still, she’d fight tooth and nail, mourn with him, remain with him, do whatever and anything and all of it if it meant a single strand of fibrous hold stretched over the wound roaring of Han Solo’s fall.

“You know, I thought healing would come quicker than this.” Rey leaned against the hallway’s paneling.

“I thought, ending Palpatine would do it, but then you died, and I recognized healing was a joke. A fool’s fantasy. Ben, wherever you went, it was the farthest I have ever felt you from me.” Rey’s eyes averted, she stared at anything to remove the idea that something like that could happen again.

“I was cold and beyond even the thought of life, let alone healing. I think that’s why I went to Tatooine. I mean I fled, I ran like I always do, and I didn’t look back because that meant admitting you weren’t coming back. My parent’s leaving me behind was…something that helped make me the person I am, but your death,” Rey ran a rushed hand over her eyes and took with it pouring tears.

“Hollow, whatever that feeling was, it was hollow. A wound I couldn’t touch because it existed in you and even if I could, I would do nothing to heal it. It was all I had left and your shadow was better than any light I’d ever known.” Rey relented to her will only to see Ben, to have him know her pain in his absence and the confession that came with it.

“I think it’s very possible that if you die, I die too. Don’t die Ben Solo, and don’t spend your life dwelling on what the Force intended. You have your life, now please live it with me.” 

“I don’t deserve you.” Ben rolled his words over a weltering agony twice fed since his joining with Rey, since they realized the connection. In response, Rey huffed and smiled for a moment before placing her hands on Ben’s face. The tips of her finger met his curls, and her thumbs traced gently over his cheeks leaving trails of warmth Ben would follow into oblivion.

“It’s not about winning or losing, deserving or suffering. Be with me.” The request made most avowed turned into a call Ben swore he’d heard again and again in every dream from his childhood to now. An answer came in the form of Ben pulling Rey close, cracking himself more open than before, and willing Rey to be with him in that place.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey and Ben journey to Corellia.

A steam-filled city with pewter sky and behemoth ships moving from one place to next revealed itself when Rey landed the Millennium Falcon at a public hangar. BB-8 warned of threats both in the form of the First Order and of thugs who would undoubtedly have their eye on the Falcon.

“Poe said this guy often hangs out in cantinas along the main shipyard. I guess that’s where he picks up business when the First Order isn’t currently using him.” Rey said as she began to cover her face with a scarf to go along with the poncho.

“We won’t be here for long,” Rey said in response to Ben’s desire to go with her. It made sense for him to stay, for him to remain behind while the rest of the galaxy thought him dead.

“Terex is cunning. He won’t believe a thing you say to him.” Ben offered, hoping Rey would take more than her lightsaber.

“Then I’ll bring him back by force,” Rey affirmed, removing a small blaster from a hidden place in the Falcon. Touching Ben’s shoulder as she walked by, Rey asked BB-8 to stay behind much to the bewailing droid’s horror. 

“You stand out too,” Rey commented before leaving.

Outside, a chill ran through the hangar one mingled with smells of salt, fire, and oil. A grumpy gurgle from an Ugor Rey passed reminded the woman of how precious her time was. The Millennium Falcon was well known and while there were many willing to keep their heads down just as much as Rey, there were those who wanted nothing more to cheat and steal their way through the galaxy. Streets and businesses rang from every corner while unaccompanied children dodged and ran from place to place. In the masses, Rey ducked her head and began a slow transverse from one place to the next, waiting for something to stand out. Tempted, the woman let her fingertips drift to the wall, a stand selling parts, a speeder, a leaflet proposing fewer restrictions on trade. A grumble from a Besalisk caught Rey’s attention. With a sudden stop, the woman placed her back against a wall while the droves walked by and she concentrated on the voice speaking a meter or so away. The Besalisk spoke in his native tongue, one Rey wasn’t completely familiar with, but the inflection alone told of secrets. A woman answered the Besalisk with nods and a tilted head Rey swore was inclined to a hidden weapon beneath the woman’s cloak.

When the conversation ended, the woman and Besalisk parted ways as if nothing had happened at all. Rey followed the woman, keeping step with her as she drifted from the busier part of the street to a more secluded place. Between unused bulk cruisers, the woman sidestepped some Stormtroopers and disappeared. While the woman went beneath the cruiser, Rey climbed its side and followed from there. With open water on one side, the city on the other, and a sky full of unfinished ships and their accompanying vessels that worked furiously to finish them, the woman paused at a trash heap erupting from the water. The pile, one used by the shipyard to discard unusable pieces, was a still monument to the constant boom of demand. Slowly the woman looked over her shoulder and then approached a plank of metal that extended from the street to the floating hoard. Between what used be the bow of some imperial ship, the woman slipped away unseen.

“That’s it,” Rey said to herself and jumped to the ground. Following the same plank, Rey found the darkened corridor.

A sudden shove on Rey’s chest pushed the woman back with the bellow of a questioning Dug in her ear.

“Password?” Rey questioned and already, the smell of thick liquor hit her nose. Raising her hand, the Jedi waved off the Dug who responded without hesitation and stepped aside to allow Rey inside. Accosted by the profuse choke of dirty drinks and smoke, Rey spent little time waiting for her eyes to adjust. Rough voices scolded the cantina with shouts and violent threats as games were lost and won and drinks tipped backed and consumed without custom. Scruffy service droids navigated the crowd serving drinks or otherwise getting in the way, one even had the misfortune of stepping between a Gran and his winnings. While the droid went flying to the table next door, a group of bounty hunters found their feet with blasters in hand and mutiny itching at their fingers. The Gran must have thought himself quicker than the trained gunman as he leaped behind a lounge only to be shot once and then never again. Stepping towards the fallen Gran was a near smooth headed man. Ease on his shoulders, thick armor covering his neck but releasing a steady, cold gaze from two piercing blue eyes, this man didn’t bend to pick up the Gran’s lost winnings, but instead opened a gloved hand to the now dead Gran’s protocol droid. Timidly, the droid dug through his master’s cloak and removed his credits and handed them over. For the first time, a light strong enough to break the mist flashed and then subsided to the sound of the droid hitting the ground with a blaster shot to the chest.

“Ha.” The man smirked, brushed his fingers over his mustache, and frowned at the credits in his hand.

“It almost wasn’t worth killing you.” The man dropped the credits and grinned as other patrons rushed the dead body for the unclaimed winnings.

The man didn’t return to his seat but instead went deeper into the cantina. Rey held her gaze on the man, watched him saunter a bit more into the fog before following. Several steps behind, Rey danced her attention from one game to the next as if she were any other patron, and when she felt the man’s back to her, she assumed her trail again. Poe described Terex as a cunning soldier with heartless morals and a penchant for weapons. Blasters, knives, anything he could hide away and bring out at a later date.

“Expect him to be ten steps ahead.” Poe had warned, but from where Rey stood, she wasn’t impressed. Terex appeared as most any other goer of an illegal cantina; seedy, but otherwise only as dangerous as the weapons they carried.

A tight grasp around Rey’s upper arm from behind forced the woman to bite back her initial response. She’d made a mistake, as she realized the man she currently followed while wearing the same garb, wasn’t the true target. Terex’s paranoia figured Rey out the moment she started following him, but that was only for the time being. 

“Now, why would you be following me?” When Rey didn’t answer, she felt the barrel of a blaster pushed to her spine.

“I’m here to pick you up. The First Order has a mission.” Rey forced her voice to be as dry and monotone as possible.

“I haven’t received a call.” The man growled.

“It’s a sensitive mission.”

“From who?”

“General Campbell.” Rey lied. Terex turned her around so that they were face to face and Rey took the moment to bury a hand in the depths of her poncho. Taking the end of his blaster, Terex tipped Rey’s hood back and then slowly peeled away the cloth covering her face. Either the man didn’t know who he was looking at or perhaps his bile for her and all her kind made him appear placid to the world, like calm waters below a sordid ocean. Rey reared her head back and, with a smack to rival a blaster shot, knocked her forehead against Terex’s causing the man to fall back. By the time Terex had the mind to look up, he was face to face with a lightsaber.

“We need to get out of here fast!” Rey roared as she boarded the Millennium Falcon with a blaster to Terex’s back. Already Ben was in the pilot’s seat with the Falcon fired up and ready to go. As it pulled from the hangar, a group of Stormtroopers rounded the entrance with blasters keen on the escaping Falcon. From the main hold, Rey heard the repeated warnings of the First Order to land the craft immediately or be forced.

Pushing Terex to a seat, Rey yanked his hands behind his back and fastened them with fury, making it clear that if he tried anything, it would be his last attempt.

“BB-8!” Rey called and didn’t have to wait long until the droid showed up with his lens focused on the guest.

“Watch him.” Rey nodded towards Terex before rushing down the corridor towards the gun well. From her seat, Rey witnessed an ascension of TIE fighters flooding the atmosphere.

“I thought we won this war.” Rey mumbled under her breath.

In smooth dives and spins that brought the Falcon within meters of stationary ships waiting to be finished, Ben tore through the shipyard using the vessels as a shield. It was a wild chase that glued Rey to her seat and produced a grin she’d never felt before. It was the same for Ben; this was hardly a fight and more like a game. More TIEs poured forth, their blades screaming out a horrid call of soon arriving destruction, but again Ben shrugged the threat for more fun. Racing towards the hoard of TIEs, Ben dodged almost every shot save for a couple that managed to scratch the surface and nothing more. The trajectory continued with neither the TIEs nor Ben giving air to each other as they raced for sure annihilation. The formation faltered and dodged the oncoming freighter sending TIE fighter screams rushing through the Falcon and reverberating in the chest of every human on board. In a final hoorah, Ben entered hyperspace leaving the TIEs behind him to the nothingness of space.

Rey didn’t realize she’d been holding her breath and upon its release, a burst of laughter came with it.

“He’s one hell of a pilot.” She admitted to herself in quiet reverence.

In the main hold, Rey found Agent Terex reclaiming his seat after what must have been a second or third fall.

“Your pilot flies like a lunatic.” The man muttered before replacing the grimace on his face with a smirk.

“The scavenger, I presume?” Rey greeted the man’s smirk with a narrowed glare and crossed her arms. Unblinking, the Jedi heard what the man wasn’t saying. Hatred swelled in this man and only grew more unspeakable with every glance to the woman. Terex’s smile deepened, pleased with himself that she got the picture. Leaning forward, Terex purposefully made himself open to the Jedi and welcomed her to read his every inclination. Resentment strung with drunken apathy tangled with avarice and every lowly deed that came with it. It all snapped away when Ben appeared at the entryway. Terex, first confused, replaced his initial reaction with haunting spite. 

“Well, if it isn’t the freak.”


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Agent Terex proves to be more than just a threat.

Through the lens of another sentient being, Rey caught the sharp edge of Agent Terex’s effusive repulse for the man standing before him. Agent Terex’s attention compelled by abhorrence twisted into the once Supreme Leader’s gaze, and if such a thing as eyes were a weapon, then Agent Terex held a Death Star each in his orbs. As for Ben, he sloughed the cold welcome, let it fall to the ground, and then proceeded to walk over it. Sitting across from Agent Terex, Ben noticed a piercing warmth run from the cane in his hand. Glancing down, Ben considered the wooden cane and the life somehow piercing from it.

_Odd_ , Ben thought before refocusing on Agent Terex.

He hadn’t changed much, Agent Terex that is. He still boasted of scars and the resolve of a man who could never be wrong as long as he was first to pull a weapon. Lucky for Ben, Rey removed the man’s weapons from his person before tossing them into the ocean outside the cantina. However, there was no way for Rey to remove Terex’s most dangerous weapon without killing him.

“I thought you were dead.” Terex held back a stifling laugh, one from his gut that mixed well with the drinks he’d consumed earlier.

“Strange, how the Resistance thinks they’ve won when all that’s happened is the loss of a leader who couldn’t handle seeing his own face.” Terex leaned forward, opening himself up again to let Ben know whatever it was he wanted.

“But you’re not with the Resistance, are you?” Sneering, Terex thought of all the Resistance members he’d killed and then finally pictured General Leia and the several times he’d almost been the reason for her demise.

“In fact, I’d go as far as to say that the Resistance doesn’t even know you’re alive…” Mouth agape like a panting beast, Terex broke his gaze from Ben and refocused it on Rey.

“Meaning, she’s the only one that does.”

The temptation to break the man with the cane in his hand shadowed Ben’s thoughts, but like air he let it go and became as vapor if only to search Terex’s mind without further notice.

“What are you doing with a guy like this? Don’t you know what he’s done? I heard he killed his father just to watch him die.” A putrid twist of a smile swept over Terex as he calculated and considered why the two would team up. Like a clip suddenly removed from an explosive, Terex leaned back, pushing forth every laugh he’d held down until this moment. A bellow that sent BB-8 into a flurry of disturbed whistles left the man’s body and when he was done with his game, Terex shook his head as if privy to the universe’s greatest secret.

“That’s why you could never kill her? How many times did we have the coordinates to her exact location? How many times did our spies know where she would be and every time, every single time, you insisted on going by yourself or with the other six freaks who followed you around? My condolences, by the way.” 

“What’s the Damzell Project?” Ben asked, and the smallest let in Terex’s composure gave. A single crack and behind it a man willing to tear a hole in Ben with his bare hands.

“On…Hoth is it?” Ben asked. Terex bared his teeth at the move.

“You’re an intrusive bastard, aren’t you?” Snapping his head back to Ben, Terex closed himself off, made it near impossible for the man in front of him to read him any further.

“I should have known the red dust in this death trap was from Sullust.”

“Project Damzell?” Ben ended the question with spikes in the Force sharp enough for Terex to understand that he wouldn’t be asking the question a second time.

“Command Echelon. Project Damzell. It doesn’t matter what you know or what you do. There are things set in motion that will reinvigorate the First Order, set aside the ways of your mystic stupidity, and waylay a true battle, one you would have never had the stomach for.” The agent turned his thoughts into a whip, one minute pulled back with the rush of wind, and the next stinging forward with a sworn target.

“I really can’t wait to tell the First Order their leader is a traitor. That he’s bunked up with some impetuous scavenger-“ Not a single gesture on Ben’s part insinuated the sudden knockback of Agent Terex’s head against the wall and forward throw of it against the table leaving his nose bloody, but otherwise alive. Terex spit out another bout of laughter mixed with blood as Ben reached his feet and exited for the cockpit.

“Hoth?” Rey asked, envisioning the constant snow that came with the planet.

“I think Hoth.” A heavy answer salted with guilt passed over Ben’s lips as he input the coordinates to the snowy world. Inward, Ben’s anger imploded, leaving him with a clenched jaw and rugged thoughts. It wasn’t easy relearning what it meant to be human and not a monster. It was a step from impossible ignoring a boasting urge to relent to what Ben knew for so long. Rey’s hand on his back reminded him that she was there, felt every notion in his head, and still, she smiled at him like he were the last good thing in this universe.

“Come on, Ben. Let it go. If you hadn’t knocked some sense into Terex then I would have.” Ben desired to smile back, but Rey would see right through any forced emotion on his part.

“What’s up with that guy anyway? Why does he hate us so much?”

“I’m afraid I might be partly to blame for that,” Ben answered, staring out into hyperspace.

“I think it’s more than that. When he saw you, he saw Vader.”

“When he first met me, he expected Vader. Expected a cool-headed overlord who would finish what the Empire started without getting in his way. Vader was a means to an end and so was I, in Terex’s eyes.” A weight slouched over the man clung with hooks at his memories, and as the burden shifted, it took parts of Ben with it. In both choice and violence, Ben was shedding more of what he used to be.

“I’m unpredictable. Passionate. Audacious. I’m everything he hates about the Force. He wanted someone to bring the First Order full circle and what he got was someone who used the universe’s most perfected war machine to cover up Snoke’s death and keep the trail leading to the last Jedi as foggy as possible.”

Before Rey and Ben, a brilliant white expanse under a setting sun spoke of few visitors in a very long time. In the cold air that had yet to breach the Falcon’s exterior, a promised a storm brewed, something extreme and unrelenting.

“Perfect timing,” Ben mumbled.

“Your cabin,” Ben looked over his shoulder towards the back of the ship, “should have a loose panel beside the bed. Behind it, there’s clothing more fitting for this environment.” Rey smiled to herself.

“I thought I’d found every hiding place on this ship.”

“Really? Have you seen what’s kept in the hollowed-out portion below the galley?” At this Rey paused, her hand on the entryway preparing to leave for her cabin.

“Do I want to know?” She asked, curious. Ben shrugged and turned back.

“I think the Falcon might still have the ability to trace amplify. If those scientists were the last ones on this planet, we might soon know where they were hiding.” 


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey and Ben find a long lost lab and it brings more unexpected truths to the surface.

Bundled up in wrinkled clothes smelling of oil and long gone fumes, Ben and Rey convened outside away from the prying eyes of Agent Terex. Beneath the Falcon, Rey dared to keep her eyes uncovered a moment longer out of want to see Hoth as she was. White for deserts with rearing winds sending catapults of snow-filled gusts in every direction, Rey waited for the rare gaps in coverage, the ones that revealed a brilliant sky above.

“Mount Ison.” Ben spoke through the muffle protecting his face.

“Their lab is here.” A hologram illuminated in front of them, Ben motioned to an area of Mount Ison that was meters away, but with the constant snow was completely hidden. 

“They didn’t bother hiding it?” Rey questioned, leaning forward to get a better look at the hologram. 

“The storms are so frequent up here. It’s the perfect place to hide something you don’t want found.”

“And no hangar?”

“Not that I could tell. No details on the security, either.” Ben leaned on his cane, gripping the handle with a gloved hand. A heave he hid well, but Rey felt reverberating in the Force caused the woman to keep her eye cover down another moment longer. Pulling away the cloth covering her mouth, Rey saturated the Force, offering her own support should Ben need it.

“I’m fine.” A husky answer as Ben revealed his eyes. It was like wearing a mask all over again and Ben didn't like it.

“Really. I’ll be fine.” Ben reached to Rey’s face and pulled the woven material over it.

“Agent Terex will have to come with us. If this lab is anything like the others, they’ll be a place to hold him. The storm is going to get worse, so we’ll have to be quick. The wind is strong enough here to pick up the Falcon.” A mixed apprehension between Ben and Rey outlined the dire need to keep their attention on Agent Terex at all times.

With Ben taking the lead, Agent Terex stuck some feet behind with his hands still bound and a thick cloak around his body, Rey behind Agent Terex, and BB-8 bringing up the rear, the group headed north. According to the information the Millenium Falcon provided the lab was just beyond a ridge in the mountain. As was promised, both the Jedi and Ben dug their attention into Agent Terex, taking in his every inclination. For now, the man had no thought of running, not even the slightest desire to run in this kind of storm. As if agreeing with the notion, the unseen sky above roared with thunder. The ridge provided some slow down as the group traveled down than up through thickening snow, but ascending the ridge was met with a silent break in the weather. Clarity skipped over the snow and there to counter every hope of unafflicted travel sat the morose form of a far grasping tower. Ebony stone, scarred with time, twisted and curved high above the ground as if damning the world below and refusing to return.

Ben let his apprehension pass like water, there was no fear in him at this time, but warnings rang like bells. Stepping forward, Ben felt an itch, a small tick coming from the man behind him. Stopping, Ben turned to glance at Agent Terex, who kept his head down. When Ben stepped a meter or so from the path the itch left Agent Terex. Cocking his head, Ben continued his travel while using his cane to tap the surface of the snow until…

“A fosse?” Rey questioned as she watched the snow nearly swallow Ben’s cane until he pulled it back. Agent Terex didn’t respond. Grabbing Agent Terex by the neck, Ben shoved the man in front of him, forcing Agent Terex to lead the rest of the way.

“Let’s hope your memory serves you well,” Rey spoke to the man who showed little response. He had more tricks up his sleeve.

At the entrance of the lab, there was no panel to gain entry, no guards on duty, nothing to note the importance of what existed behind the dark walls. Ungloving a hand, Ben approached the wall, what had to be a door of some kind, and placed his bare hand against it. Pervasive tangles took hold of the man’s mind, nothing he couldn’t handle, but nonetheless reminders of his past life. Pulling back, Ben glanced up at the wall, at the dense mist covering the majority of the tower.

In a conversation taking place despite a lack of eye contact, Rey offered her help, and extending her hands, she raised the wall from the ground up. Contagious darkness welcomed the group and like before, Ben pushed Agent Terex in first. Lowering the wall behind her, Rey removed the cover over her eyes and cloth protecting her face.

“How?” Rey glanced back at the wall she’d just lifted, its enormity. It would have taken a massive piece of machinery to handle such weight. To her question, BB-8 chimed in with his most recent scans.

“Underground tunnels. That would have been helpful.” Rey looked to Agent Terex, who had shed his outer layer.

“I never said I was going to help.”

“Yeah, can you answer who built this place? It feels ancient.” Rey asked, her eyes watching Ben as he ventured further into the darkness, his hands touching the walls, and glance raised to a ceiling he couldn’t see, but feel.

“No one I know.” Agent Terex answered.

Untenanted, the lab had more area unused than utilized. Wherever the actual lab was, it was somewhere else within the walls.

“At least there’s a place to keep you.” Rey took Agent Terex by the arm and guided him to the empty room Ben had found.

“What is it with you two? Can you read his mind?” Agent Terex bit the words, shoved them from his mouth as if they made him gruesomely ill to think of.

“It’s the Force. You wouldn’t understand.”

“You’re nothing but a sorceress dotting spells and touting a false religion, one that should have never existed.” Agent Terex didn’t fight when Rey pushed him into the small room, what must have been a windowless reading room of sorts. At his entrance, Ben pulled the remains of a massive broken pillar to cover the doorway and lock Agent Terex within the room.

“He’s something else.” Rey shook her head. Before Rey and Ben was a hallway large enough for the Falcon to comfortably fit, on either side were old rooms dank and filled with nothing but cold. Following Ben’s lead, Rey removed her gloves and touched what was around her; the walls, engraved edicts on the stone from long ago, statues of three-headed beasts and uncanny boors with white globes for eyes. In a slow double over, Ben caught himself just as Rey rushed to his side. Warm hand at his neck and the other on his chest, Rey found Ben’s gaze. This place was too familiar in his mind, despite the fact he’d never stepped foot in this place. Standing to his full height, Ben nodded to Rey, still the woman kept Ben’s hand in hers, holding it tightly.

“Come on BB-8,” Rey called over her shoulder, but the droid needed little incentive to follow.

Deeper into the darkness with hands out and feeling for any clue, BB-8 was the first to gain some form of understanding. In quite whistles that carried too easily, BB-8 told of a hidden room nearby.

“Something is interrupting BB-8’s nav.”

“How close?” Ben asked, but the droid could only answer that the room was forward, somewhere forward.

“There’s a wall, BB-8,” Rey touched the wall, felt the dampness below her fingertips.

“You think it’s odd this place doesn’t seem to have any security?” Rey asked. To her side, Ben found the answer to BB-8’s navigational issues. Between crumbling bricks, Ben’s finger caught and digging deeper he uncovered a hole.

“It’s hollow on the other side.” Placing the full weight of his palm against the wall, Ben caused more bricks to fall to the ground, and behind it, a study showed itself.

“BB-8, a little light,” BB-8 answered the request by illuminating himself, but while the light did not carry far it was enough for Ben to locate a sconce.

“May I see your lightsaber?” Ben need not wait long as Rey handed it to him willingly. Igniting the lightsaber, but preventing it from taking its full length, Ben light the scone. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to reveal an archive of written word left to decaying shelves. Warm light, somehow not falling victim to the consuming darkness, rolled from the wick. Pulling a ragged book from a shelf brought with it a layer of dust and perhaps a partial answer as Rey opened it to find detailed notes of past experiments.

“They kept written records.” Rey showed the ruby clothed book to Ben.

“Damzell Project.” Ben read on as the book described a poison of sorts, something dark and locked away.

“It’s all in code. This isn’t written in a way for anyone to understand. There has to be a key somewhere nearby.” Rey got the idea and began searching. With fleeting hands and touched books, Ben and Rey sorted through the archive searching for anything that could help them.

“The security. You’re right. There isn’t any here.” Ben answered Rey’s question from several moments ago.

“This place is alive.” He mentioned, a thick hardcover open and under his steady gaze. Catching the light and the way it embraced the half of Ben Solo’s face Rey could see, the woman saw someone as close to ease as someone could be in a place like this. Reading was a comfort, like a hearty meal or warm drink. The book resting in one hand, his index finger used to keep track and pinky for turning page after page, Ben wasn’t deterred by the harsh lettering.

“What does this place being alive have to do with security?”

“This place protects itself all on its own. No security needed.” A beat of silence between the two, but filled to the brim with possibility and itching curiosity. 

“Your lightsaber. It’s supposed to say something about the wielder. I touch yours and it doesn’t distinguish you from me.” The question Ben had was wrapped and held down, but Rey heard it nonetheless.

“Within the Force we are the same. The lightsaber responds the same way to your presence in the Force as it does mine.” The beginnings of a debate heated in Ben’s chest, but he let it go when he saw Rey had a question of her own.

“Back on the Falcon you said my father spoke to you, what did you tell him?” An instinct taught and bent into the man roared to life, but as a fire to a mighty storm, it all turned to vapor. If there was one thing Kylo Ren had done correctly, it was that he’d never lied to Rey and while a challenge in the form of loving and bearing made Ben want to hate himself for all his swallowing anguish this was something of himself, those harsh lessons, he wouldn’t let touch Rey.

“I told him I’d give you every part of me. Give you the life you always should have had.” A chuckle passed over the man, but while neck-deep in something akin to a blush the man didn’t break from Rey’s gaze.

“The thing is, I don’t know what life you want. Where you want to go, what you want to do. It’s more of a mystery to me than this whole place.” The candle’s curve held Rey’s face in complete sincerity. Confessions of lost dreams and hopeful new days bridged the woman’s mouth, but it was all held back by a collection of endearments Rey felt she could never fully make known to Ben.

“No one’s ever asked me that before.” 


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey answers Ben's question before they're separated.

A sublime delicateness wafted with Rey, followed her wherever she went, and Ben, at nearly every turn, discovered himself to be stricken by her. Yes, the once scavenger boasted of rugged edges, sharp skills, an inclination for careless reactivity, and to those she had worked closest with, a lonely tenacity thought untouchable. The son of the princess of Alderaan, a scoundrel’s child, the fallen Jedi, the once supreme leader, the complete man who had seen the galaxy’s offerings, stood at every aspect of this woman and avowed himself as new to the world, not in the way to clear himself of his crimes, but to gaze at her with renewed heart and sworn life.

So when this woman turned her lips into a long-forgotten smile brought on by dreams she was no longer afraid to walk with, Ben went with her. He dove into Rey’s mind, felt her longing, an expanse plagued by tearing pain but now bloomed with healing and potential. Quite days and nights wanted for nothing more than the coruscating new life and someone to share all of it with, it swirled in Rey’s mind. A tyro at freedom, Rey embraced what her dreams had been trying to tell her for so long. In realization, Ben frowned; he acted as death for so long it was hard to imagine his hands capable of life. The waver didn’t remain long as Ben caught the joke in it all. Laughing to himself, Ben waited for Rey’s answer.

“I want a family.” Rey’s simple answer came with a sylvan depth behind it. Bowing his head, Ben felt the weight of so many layers pushing him down, telling him he wasn’t met to create life only to destroy it, all voices long gone yelling at once and then…A gentle touch at his chin and Ben lifted his gaze to warm light.

“I see no scars on you, Ben Solo.” Leaning down, Ben whispered so that no part of this place could hear him.

“If you’d accepted my hand before and taken this galaxy with me, that would have been far easier then what you’re asking of me now.”

“Since when is anything between us easy?” Rey touched her lips to Ben’s feeling the weight he carried, the sorrow, and belittling darkness with sharp points directed at him. If Ben’s past was the thing pulling him down it was Rey’s hope for the future sending him higher than he’d ever been, then he thought possible.

The third wheel of a droid whistled hesitantly, both bewildered and humbled by such blatant vows before shouting out whatever came to mind first.

“You were born on Chandrila?” Rey questioned the droid’s accusation, pulling back from Ben to look him over as if a second look would tell her all she needed to know. Ben nodded slowly, looking back and forth from the droid to Rey.

“Rey-“ Ben began, but never finished as the ceiling above came crashing down. Throwing her hands out, Rey pushed Ben and BB-8 back, sending them to a safer place. Dust and debris claimed most of the study and secluded Rey to another portion of it and Ben to the floor below as he’d fallen through an opening made by the falling debris. When the greater pieces of stone had fallen, Ben reached out searching for Rey within the Force, she was alive, but there was more. Down the hallway, where Agent Terex was being kept Ben realized the truth; the man was gone, vacated, and now loose in the lab he knew more about than Ben.

A tug in the Force met Rey’s attention.

“Ben…” Rey understood his concern, his desire to work from where he was, wherever that was. When BB-8, who found himself under a bookcase, yelped for assistance Rey lifted the stone from the droid’s globe and checked him for damage. Except for some dust in his gears, BB-8 was fine and in a turn of events questioned the whereabouts of Ben.

“I think he’s somewhere below us. He’s going to stay where he is, and we’ll meet up with him later. It’s best if we stay separated for now, give Agent Terex the idea he’s gotten rid of us.” Rey whispered and the droid went silent in agreement. Finding her feet, Rey let her eyes drift over the mostly destroyed study; they’d barely found the information they were looking for.

A floor below and entrapped in the darkness surrounding him, Ben felt the book in his hand; he hadn’t lost it during the collapse. For a normal man, for one unaccustomed to the darkness, it would seem insane to attempt to read a book in pure shadows, but for Ben…

The man once a monster remembered his time with Snoke, recalled the many planets overflowing with gas-filled skies and black terrain, with dark secrets and venom. It had been there that Ben learned a great many things including the body’s ability to exist without light. Ben looked down at the book, found it’s lettering, and from there unfolded the mystery…that was it. The lab’s gloom was the key, its infinite depths brought to life new letters and now the true translation spread out before Ben. The lab was a maze, an intricate death trap the scientists used to their advantage as the use of so little energy made them unnoticeable. For a group of people who wanted nothing to do with the Force, they sure liked to use it. The journal mentioned over and over again a vault, the inner lab holding what the scientists worked on day and night. No doubt, whatever lay in this vault would be of use to Agent Terex as much as to Ben and Rey.

It was another hallway Ben found himself in, one more thin than the one he and Rey entered at the beginning of their journey. Obscured portraits hung from the walls and the flooring did not have the unforgiving firmness of stone, no it was wood. This was a secret tunnel, Ben realized. An inner bowel caught forever in a stasis that prevented the rest of this place from…

 _Living_ , Ben thought to himself.

Reaching out a hand, Ben touched the wall and heard of things so ancient and sorrowful. The scientist weren’t the first ones here, Ben and Rey knew that, but they were a part of a long line of succession. One master after another who came to this place and told the living how to exist. At Ben’s feet, he felt his attention demanded, and looking down, he found his cane. The same life that coursed in the slim piece of gimer wood, also existed in the lab, in what this place used to be.

“Perhaps you and I, we’re not so different,” Ben spoke aloud, and his voice echoed among emptied halls.

BB-8, with Rey’s help, found his way over the broken stone and out of the study. A morose gust lead the duo to an open floor, one lacking furniture or even a rug to cover the freezing floor. From above, a pallid light seeped through stained glass and when Rey glanced upward, it was to the sight of glass vines extending from one end of the room to the other. In quiet beauty, this room held itself together and like splitting ice, it released itself. The glass above broke, seemingly of its own accord, and fell down on the droid and human below. Running forward into the darkness, Rey swept her hand sending the glass far away from her and BB-8. Shoulder first into closed double doors was enough to burst through the other side and into the next room. The doors behind Rey snapped closed with an echoing shutter and Rey only turned to face the rest of the room when BB-8 whispered to her.

“Glowing eyes?” Rey hoped she’d heard that wrong.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Warning: this chapter has a bit more violence as Rey takes on a beast. Not more than what I’d expect from a Star Wars film, but just in case. Rey fights a beast and Ben finds something interesting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> These characters belong to the mouse.

The beast’s opaque eyes held Rey, and as it rose to its full height, it reached an area Rey thought a ceiling should exist. When the creature exhaled, the putrid scent of bile enveloped the room, and even BB-8 somehow sensed the unnatural characteristic of something so degraded. In the Force bled danger and threats, if the woman standing before such a damned creation wanted to fight, then she better be ready for a war. Igniting her lightsaber, Rey caught the glint of blood and clear liquid as it oozed over open welts in an attempt to heal what could not be made whole. The beast reared back from the light and the yellow of Rey’s weapon reflected as infection in the beast’s eyes. This creature, locked away with nothing to eat but its own rage, was more illness than beast. 

This was no beast of nature, but of science and had this been a more fragile moment, then perhaps Rey would have healed the beast’s welts, sealed over his sickness with a cure, but locked in a place of torture the beast’s mind turned with the tune of ending. It did not want to live, it did want a cure, it wanted nothing. In a grumble that shook the walls, the beast threw forward a flat face with a massive mouth full of vine-like teeth. Tentacles in its mouth reached for the intruder and when she proved to be too quick, it grabbed the droid instead.

“BB-8!” Rey watched on in horror as the beast tilted its head back and, with a tentacle dropped BB-8 into its gullet.

From her vantage point, Rey jumped down and charged the beast. When tentacles came down, Rey threw her lightsaber towards them and cutting them like vines they fell around her. Her lightsaber back in her hand, Rey sprinted for the beast’s side and finding rugged skin she climbed it much to the rage of the beast. In hollers and bellows that made stone shatter, the beast whipped back and forth attempting to shake the woman from itself. Rey had the upper hand as she dug her lightsaber into the beast’s flesh and used the hilt as a rung to climb. Close to the beast’s back, Rey found herself behind the head, but not for long. Like some bird of prey, the beast twisted its head so that he was facing Rey.

“Oh no,” Rey braced for what came next as the beast lifted a disjointed limb and bringing it down on her the Jedi went flying back. Her lightsaber still ignited, the woman dug what she could into the beast to slow her fall, but then the beast’s tail whipped through the air like a falling star and smashed an area only a few centimeters away. In the Force, Rey felt the beast’s next inclination, and that was the will to back the area of its body Rey clung to into a wall; Rey had other ideas. Throwing her hand to the wall she shattered the stone and using the fallen pieces she attacked the beast with pelting stone. The beast stood to his fullest height, on his rear legs, and bringing himself back to the earth he slammed the floor with a piercing scream. Rey slipped again and found herself at the beast’s belly hanging upside down.

The Jedi crawled using her hands this time to reach the beast’s upper belly, chest, and then neck. For the final time, Rey ignited her lightsaber and dug it deep into searing flesh until she felt the snap of a spine. The beast was mid roar and the sudden injury caused the noise to end in a gurgle. The beast stumbled a bit, shook, and then fell to the ground. Rey jumped away in time before the tonnage of such a beast fell on her, but as soon as the room went silent, Rey called for BB-8 and began cutting away the flesh.

“BB-8!” He was here, he had to be. Rey cut at the belly, dragged her saber along, keeping in mind of the droid she was looking for. She stopped when she heard the soft whistles of a muffled droid.

“BB-8?” Rey asked, and using her hands, she pulled away at the opening she made until BB-8 came rolling out covered in gunk.

“BB-8!” Rey, overjoyed, used her clothes to wipe away what covered the droid, all the while BB-8 went on about the beast’s belly.

“I know it was dark,” Rey whispered looking into BB-8’s lens, the droid paused and swiveled his head to the beast laying behind him. An impressed whistle left the droid and when he turned back to Rey it was to ask a single question.

“Yes BB-8, you did that. The beast swallowed you whole and it made him very ill. Good job.”

From time to time within the Force, Ben caught snippets of the lab around him. The comings and goings of the collection of scientists who worked here.

 _Where had they all gone_? Ben wondered, and his answer came with the sinking of his stomach. Most, if not all of the scientists were still here and incapable of ever leaving. Out of curiosity, Ben stopped before one of the covered portraits hanging from the wall and not wanting to leave it to his imagination what could behind it, he pulled away the dusty drape. Whatever the portrait used to be was long gone, the fabric once holding the painting was cut from its frame, and its place a thick window. To whoever stood on the opposite side, there appeared nothing, but on Ben’s side he could see the entirety of another room, one with a more traditional laboratory build to it. While sterile and near empty, the room housed technology specific to the First Order. Chairs were situated in front of tables, large display panels were now darkened, but there was something beyond the displays, something looming in the darkness.

Shrugging his shoulders, Ben forced the thick window to shatter and stepping through it, he entered the lab, leaving the mess behind him as the only thing out of place. Into the shadows, Ben walked not ignoring the impulse in him to back away. Whatever had been done down here was of the most lethal attitude. Closer to the core of the room, Ben found a vat towering over him. Thick glass held by metal at the top and bottom offered layer after layer of protection from whatever was inside. Glancing over the machinery, Ben located some illumination but even with it on there wasn’t much to know of the tiny vial sitting at the center of the vat. 

“What did you cook up in here?” Ben didn’t turn to the man he knew to be standing behind him, an act that infuriated Agent Terex. Lowering the blaster Terex came across while searching for the main lab, the man thought about lying to Ben, but decided the truth would be a better weapon. 

“Why, we were making a new weapon for our dear Supreme Leader.” Agent Terex hissed.

“Something so fierce it could take out an entire planet without destroying its resources. If I may speak freely, it was never a good plan to blow planets up left and right with no thought as to what was being lost.” When Ben turned Agent Terex perceived the pressure in the hand holding the blaster, it was like a weight pulling his entire arm to his side.

“Think about it. We take an entire world hostage with a single fast-acting illness that we only hold the cure for. We not only get their planet intact, but we also get the entirety of their population alive and whole.” Agent Terex smiled, his eyes held on the vial behind Ben.

“Don’t look so disgusted. Really think to yourself, if this had been presented to Kylo Ren, would he not have taken full advantage of it?” Agent Terex raised his weapon against the pressure in his hand, but Ben was quicker. Snatching the blaster away, it went flying over Ben and into the darkness where its shatter could be heard.

“Pity.” Agent Terex frowned.

“You see that’s the cure behind you and this is the contagion.” In a flash, Agent Terex threw at Ben’s feet a small cylinder that, upon contact with the floor, exploded.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey and BB-8 continue to search the lab and something that BB-8 tells Rey reminds her of Leia.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> These characters belong to the mouse.

With the beast’s body laid out before Rey and BB-8, the two intruders glanced over it, taking in the sickness bubbling over its flesh.

“Poor thing,” Rey said to herself. At her feet, BB-8 inquired about the beast’s miserable form.

“I don’t know BB-8. I think it was a test subject.” Shaking off the sudden cold of the place, Rey walked into the darkness, looking for an exit at the other end. The room proved to be massive, not just in scale for the beast, but far more.

“I feel…” Rey began and sank herself in the Force, into the constant echo of cries and screams bounding from every hall.

“This place has heard some awful things,” Rey whispered. A wave of solitude washed over her, loneliness she’d known so well on Jakku, and wafting with it unending confusion.

“It’s this place, BB-8. It’s alive, it’s always been alive, and it was forced to house such evil people.” Rey glanced upward, finally seeing where the now broken glass met the rest of the ceiling and the dull mosaic etched there. What was once a colorful Hoth with seasons and villages, with queens and kings, swept over the concave ceiling.

“This was a home once. People lived here, lovers were married here, and babies were born here.” Squatting down, Rey brushed a hand over the dirty floor to reveal fine, moon reflecting stone. Her hand planted in the spot where celebrations took place and people gathered in fellowship. Rey heard joyful music, laughing guests, and warm conversation. Already, Rey let go of some of herself if only it meant this place lost a single edge of its pain.

“I’m sorry.” Rey whispered to the darkness, and in answer, a set of double doors opened at the end of the room.

Exiting the room there was a rush at Rey’s back, a cold breeze trying to be warm. It gusted to the right encouraging Rey to take the turn. Rey agreed and once at the end of the hallway, a descending staircase plummeted into a split, into an east and west wing. With every step, Rey felt the wounds of this place become more heinous, felt the tick of prolific experiments. Slowly, BB-8 followed Rey, taking his time on each step so as not to lose control and roll into some eternal prison.

“What do you think, BB-8?” Rey asked at the split. BB-8 scanned the surrounding area and both answers as to what to expect from either direction weren’t promising.

“We’ll go this way. I have a feeling if we find the scientists, we’ll get some answers.” Perhaps in a way to distract himself of the impending, BB-8 whistled the softest question to Rey. The woman paused, at first second-guessing what she’d just heard before looking over her shoulder and down at BB-8.

“It’s a long story.” Rey offered, but that wasn’t enough for the droid. 

“It’s complicated, okay?” The questions BB-8 brought up reminded Rey of the first time she saw Kylo Ren in person. The masked figure who terrified her dreams and brought some fickle light to her nightmares. Kylo Ren froze Rey in that forest, delved his curiosity into the Force until it was all Rey could sense. Yeah, she was terrified, but like leaving Jakku it was an alarming change she knew deep down was placed in time long before she was ever born. The fight that left Kylo Ren prone and looking up to her…

Rey brushed her cheek and shook her head.

 _He wasn’t even mad_ , Rey thought. She’d seen a piece of Ben then, a fragment of the man hiding within the beast, and it claimed her every dream. Those hours between their first fight and arriving on Ahch-To were a dizzying spell that cast Rey somewhere she’d never been and had no clue how to escape from. Rey had no idea what it meant to be dreaming of him only to awake and find an impenetrable tie locking him to her. Rey tried, again and again, to sum up the connection, to put it into words that Luke would understand, but those words never formed and it took the old Jedi seeing it for himself. It was almost as if Luke was insulted and it took a moment for Rey to understand that what Luke was so upset about wasn’t the connection itself, but that maybe all it took for Ben to come home was what he needed most; love. Rey didn’t know it then, didn’t fully understand what loading herself into one of Han’s escape pods and sending herself to the feet of Snoke meant. It felt good to fight alongside Ben, it felt like a homecoming, life all she ever wanted was wrapped up in the man she was standing back to back with and even as Ben Solo sank back into Kylo Ren, Rey knew it to be a tide, a passing that would soon return.

Kylo Ren was right all along, Rey was so close to accepting his hand and perhaps if defeat and loss named anymore of her, then she would have taken his hand. The year following Snoke’s defeat was one of perpetual reflection of dreams so real they invaded Rey’s waking thoughts, making the people around Rey question if a Jedi’s path was one steeped in stormy silence.

“Leia knew,” Rey confessed to BB-8 and staring into the darkness reminded her too much of the shadow she waited for at the end of every passing day. It was one evening, not so long after the battle of Crait when General Leia found Rey gazing into a rainy evening on Kashyyyk. A small win for the Resistance in the form of a couple stolen ships and a plethora of weapons resulted in festivities, in dancing, and music and all of this Rey wandered away from. She embraced the coming darkness, the rain and all its cold, and as she’d done so many times before, she waited for a familiar figure to part the shadows and join her. He never came to Kashyyyk. Perched near the mountain’s edge with the bounty of Kashyyyk’s forest pouring in front of her, Rey didn’t hear Leia approaching, didn’t even sense the woman. 

“A broken heart for you, a broken heart for me too, clouds become our clarity and the sun a bane. We live for the night and ask nothing of the day, except to sleep. To rancor, to bemoaning agony, to my broken heart and yours, we toast every star and curse every light. We do this until a forced sunrise brings with it candid shine and now we see our rummage and tears, our tossed dusk and scarred passion. We heal, we break again, we heal again.” Leia spoke the poem as if she’d lived it and in many ways she had.

“It’s a poem from my home, Alderaan. I heard it when I was a child and I hated it. It wasn’t until I lost Han the first time, did I understand it and it wasn’t until I had Ben did I fear it.” Leia spoke once and was prepared to wait with Rey in silence.

“We heal, even if we don’t want to,” Rey said with tears in her eyes, but she refused to look to Leia.

“Yes, I think so. I think we heal because we have to.” A part of Leia knew what chased the woman from the others, what made her desire solitude, but even in the face of such a truth Leia still couldn’t believe. For a mother to love her son even after all he’d done was one thing, but for someone else…

“I could heal, but then I’d just be setting myself up to break again…” A heavy unspoken truth leveled against Rey, took the words from her breath, and spread them like small pieces of glass within the Force. Sharp, but knowing.

“And that’s it, even in brokenness, I still want him, and I come here and wait for him, but he never shows.” A gasping confession and Leia could bare it no longer. The older woman pulled Rey in for a hug, held her until all the sobs left.

“Leia knew I loved her son,” Rey told BB-8. The droid persisted with another question, one that had been on his mind since realizing the likelihood of Ben and Rey separating was nonexistent. 

“I don’t know what I’m going to tell Finn and the others.” A quite confession, one not even the walls could hear.

“I have to tell them eventually, and when I do I fear they might not understand. They…” Rey stopped and thought of the betrayal her friends would feel. Gently, BB-8 rolled close to Rey and bumped her. His optical lens fixed on her, BB-8 whistled out a promise that made Rey smile.

“Thank you, BB.”


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ben finds a secret vault within the lab.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! I'm going to try and add another chapter this week. I've been busy trying to get an outline together for the next Reylo story I want to do that takes place after this one. I put together the first chapter just to see what it would look like and it came out to 3,400 words, so it's a little bigger than what I normally do, but I think you all will enjoy it. I'm not sure when the new story will go up, but it'll be sometime after I'm done with Star Wars: Command Echelon. Thank you all so much for the comments, kudos, and hits!

When Ben came to, he was on his back, staring at the unseen above him. A pounding in his head, with weakness trickling through his body, Ben reached his feet with a dizzying fever to greet him.

 _How long was I out_ , Ben asked himself. A quick glimpse of his surroundings revealed he was still in the lab and behind him…

The chamber holding what Agent Terex said was the cure contained nothing. Its cracked capsule proved to Ben that whatever was in there was gone now, taken by Agent Terex. Stumbling forward, Ben concentrated as best he could, on the darkened lab, and on where Agent Terex could have gone. Locating his cane, Ben found his footing and wandered the lab, touching what he could, and gathering what little information was there. It was always a gamble when it came to collecting information this way, sometimes or rather most of the time there was nothing or at the very least nothing that made sense at that moment. Finding the broken cylinder, Ben reached down slowly and picked it up. Flashes of Agent Terex touched his mind, the man’s ideas, and what was to come next. It would have been easy for Agent Terex to escape this place, but he wouldn’t be leaving anytime soon.

“Rey,” Ben said to himself with the realization of who Terex’s next target was.

Fingertips to a wall, Ben felt for Agent Terex, focused his every intent on the man and where he’d fled. Agent Terex didn’t enter the lab from the hidden hallway as Ben did. Instead, he’d come from a now inactive decontamination hallway. Broken glass outlined the pathway Agent Terex took to enter the lab as he smashed his way through anything in search of the cure.

“He’s armed,” Ben told himself.

Silence now, Ben used the same stealth when hunting with the knights. At the end of the decontamination hallway, the path split into unending darkness. A swath of uncertainty wavered over Ben as he considered reaching out to Rey, but the idea of Agent Terex witnessing such a feat gave Ben pause. It was one thing if Agent Terex managed to escape and tell the galaxy of Ben’s survival, it was something entirely different if Terex spoke a word of Ben and Rey’s connection. Hit with another wave of dizziness, Ben swallowed against an inflamed throat.

 _It’s best if I don’t search her out, either_. _Whatever this disease is, it acts fast_ , Ben thought to himself. More weight on the cane than before, Ben rushed forward into the darkness, down the path he hoped would take him to Agent Terex. Already, the man sunk himself into meditation, settling his body within the Force, and overflowing himself with the will to fight on. Despite the depths of hollow shadows, Ben took notice of the slightest inclination. More like a quiet notion, this steady feeling broke into an urgency calling for Ben to twist and turn down hallways he would have otherwise ignored. Let loose into what must have been a ballroom at one point, Ben stood at the ceiling-high doors and staring out at the opposite end was a shade carrying monolith. Nearly touching the ceiling, the ebony stone flicked with familiarity in the Force. It’s dangerous shine laid over the form of a hooded figure, one standing tall, and in its hands a stone scroll.

Closer, Ben walked towards the statue with the attitude that should it move he wouldn't be the least bit surprised. Once at its feet, Ben didn’t look up, didn’t give the seemingly alive stone anymore of his attention than needed. There, at the statue’s feet, was a stele, a marking with written words, Ben wasn’t immediately able to read.

 _Tomb of tombs, death of life, here it rests for all who fight_ , slowly Ben pieced together what the words translated to and knocking gently at the base a hidden door slid open and beyond it a slender set of stairs descending inwards towards the unknown. Lightly, as if a trap lay at the next step, Ben entered the vault and didn’t shake when the expected shutter of the door closing shook through the stairway. In complete darkness, Ben relied on his ability to navigate in ways honed by forced situations involving darkened planets that never saw the light of day. Dank, bone-cold drafts welted up the stairs, and when Ben finally got to the bottom, he was met with a small, stone made bench that sat before a single inwall shelf with a laced collection of journals, and on either side a flame that never extinguished. The mere touch of Ben’s fingers to such damned articles sent threats running through him and a stubborn cough that dared to never go away. Pulling the journals down, Ben unlaced them and opened one up. Eyes adjusting to the black ink Ben read from the minds most corrupted, from those ripe with hatred and willingness to set the galaxy ablaze until every star belonged to them. Ben gathered from the number that there were a total of sixty-seven journals and in his hand, he held only five marked as six, seven, eight, nine, and ten.

Within the journals, there was an outline for a secret establishment calling themselves Command Echelon, but this was only a title and not a reflection of the greater name that was a mystery to Ben. The journals detailed in precise scrawl the impacts of the Damzell project, the disease created to control and command. Within the yellowing pages that perhaps never saw the light, Ben found the detailed notes of every trial, every failure, and at the end the cure and how it was made. Snapping the journal closed, Ben turned for the stairs and as if sensing the sudden rush of relief or perhaps fortitude, the walls began to close, slowly at first with the stairs turning to rubble before Ben’s eyes, but then with more speed. Tucking the journals away, Ben reached for one of the iron rods holding a light in place and using it to force the walls from closing any further he started forward again. Whatever prevented Ben from continuing made another move in the form of a crumbling ceiling. Ben was able to deflect the larger pieces aiming for his head, but the small room soon filled up to his neck in broken rock that trapped him in place. The rocks pressed closer to Ben, began to squeeze the air from his lungs, and then from all around him the tiny forms of eight-legged creatures came crawling from the walls, their many shimmering eyes locked on Ben.

One creature, a mere centimeter from Ben’s face reared up it’s tiny but venomous body prepared to sink its fangs into Ben. 

“You and I are the same,” Ben spoke calmly with a ragged voice becoming more sickened. The creatures stopped, the squeezing rocks loosened, and the walls halted their harsh press.

“You were good and had a family who lived within you, but sometimes that isn’t enough.” An admission Ben never wanted to hear said, but that weight on his chest seemed to tilt.

“Your family left, and now only their ghosts keep you company. And maybe for awhile having only spirits worked for you, but then _they_ showed up. You didn’t ask for them to come, they just did and when they got here it wasn't so bad. I saw the statues they left here, it’s okay to think they loved you, but you know they didn’t. All the terrible things that happened here happened within you, and now you can’t let it go. Those men are gone and are never coming back, but you still feel them.” The creatures withdrew, the rocks relented, and Ben was able to crawl from the trap. Reaching a hand to the wall, Ben found warmth, maybe even a heartbeat.

“It’s okay to be broken,” Ben whispered.

“Help me, help others. I promise if you do, the healing will come in time.” All around Ben the air slowed as if in thought and then what was once rubble turned into stairs, and at the top, the door opened. 


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Agent Terex finds Rey.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I own nothing, the mouse owns all.

At the base of the stairs, Rey’s nose filled with stagnant air mixed with the scent of sterilized instruments. With BB-8’s light on, Rey could make out the shadowy depths of a single hallway. The soft flooring from the level above was ripped out and replaced with a something more resistant, the walls were stripped and redone with medical-grade paneling, and the all-around where the discarded remains of medical equipment.

“This looks like a med bay,” Rey commented, walking past an open room complete with an exam table. From Rey’s side, BB-8 whimpered and shuffled closer to his companion all the while scanning the level for any hint of life.

“I know, BB-8, this place is…” The Jedi couldn’t summon the words. _Trapped, pleading, helpless, agony_ , all those words were caught up in her nerves and siphoned away to her intuition as it demanded she heighten her senses to everything. Touching an empty bottle of medication brought up memories of a patient suffering from an enflamed throat, from swollen joints, and a head almost too heavy to stand. Finding a thin blanket on the floor, Rey touched it lightly and drew fingers back that felt as if they were on fire.

“Fever,” Rey commented. She didn’t experience those often on Jakku, but the few times she did, it was awful.

A flash of light at the end of the hallway drew Rey from the threshold of another exam room. The smallest blue light shifted on and off before choosing to stay on. A backdrop of shadows through a floor to ceiling glass window outlined a man waiting, his gaze attached to the hallway Rey currently traveled down.

“Ben,” Rey commented in relief and approached the observation window of the larger exam room at the end of the hallway. Rey might as well have stepped on glass. She stilled so quickly when she felt Ben’s presence it the Force. That fever at her fingertips, the flame in the throat, it existed in Ben as well. Dashing for the window, Rey placed her hands against the cold, solid glass, her eyes roving over Ben. There it was, bloodshot eyes, heavy breathing, a slack tilt to his form, he was ill.

“Ben,” Rey mouthed his name and shot for the panel that would allow her entrance, but the man flung his arm out and held the door closed with the Force.

“No,” Ben said just loud enough for Rey to hear. Turning back to the glass, Rey threw a fist to the boundary and shook her head.

“Let me in!” The Jedi pleaded.

“If I let you in, you catch what I have.” Glassy eyes stayed with Rey, and the woman couldn’t help but think it was as if he were staring at her through a body of water.

“It’s Terex. He has the disease and the cure.”

“I could heal you!” Rey offered with a tilt of her head, her palms splayed against the window.

“Please, Ben, just let me in.”

A silence stacked high enough to reach the heavens passed over Ben. Either in meditation or entering the next phase of whatever illness he had, Ben sucked down a mighty breath of air just as a crash broke through the ceiling above Rey.

Terex, with a riot baton swinging through the air around him, fell on his target, and standing above Rey, he prepared to bring the sizzling weapon down. With arm pinned under rubble and the other free, Rey commanded her lightsaber and blocked the blow. Cracking white light met yellow and Terex slid his weapon away fast only to bring it down again and again, each time with more power than before as his previous failures fueled his rage. Finding a sliver of time between hits, Rey threw her hand forward sending Terex into the hallway and against a wall. If a flurry, BB-8 rushed the hallway panel and activated the door, blocking Agent Terex from Rey.

“That won’t keep him for long,” Rey shouted as she wrestled with the debris on her other arm. Pushing away the rubble, Rey freed herself with only a few shallow lacerations and an angry bruise to speak of. On her feet, the Jedi turned back to the window to find Ben on the ground, his eyes heavy but grasping for her attention. Whatever Rey intended to do next, she was forced to wait as Terex detonated a bomb next to the door he was trapped behind. The explosion sent BB-8 flying backward from the panel and put Rey on her back. Smoke filled the hallway as Terex appeared, a looming shadow with a medical mask covering his nose, eyes, and mouth. Cold, unfeeling eyes locked with the woman’s as she came to her feet and raised her lightsaber high above her head, but Terex had other plans. Blocking the blow with the riot baton, Terex tossed a smoke grenade to the floor, followed by a second. Thick smoke enveloped the room, sucked the air away, and forced Rey to hold her breath and shut her eyes.

“Bad move, I’m used to fighting blind.” The Jedi yelled into the fog while she unleashed herself within the Force, allowing it to guide her. Another blocked attack, but then Rey’s lightsaber caught Terex’s side. The man harbored his yelp, swallowed the pain, and in a fluid motion, he activated a small laser on his wrist which he shot into the smoke hitting Rey’s side. The woman tampered her pain within the Force before reaching out for Ben.

 _He’s alive_ , Rey thought, _but_ …

There was something more, a pulsing hope that came from Ben, but did not originate from him.

Just as Rey began to piece together what it all meant, Agent Terex bombarded the clearing smoke with blaster shots, all of which Rey deflected.

“I have more where that came from!” Terex growled through his mask.

“So do I,” Rey answered, igniting the other half of her lightsaber and charging towards Terex. A blaster in one hand and riot baton in the next, Agent Terex battled with Rey as a furious engagement arose. Putting a spin behind each blow, Rey hammered Terex back down the hall, but for each step she gained Terex had another trick up his sleeve. Terex guided the woman over a small bomb that had yet to be detonated, but again the Jedi proved to be a worthy advisory as she flew back just in time. The flash consumed the hallway, but in no way prevented Terex from charging Rey, this time with a cylinder of the disease in hand. Preparing to throw the cylinder at Rey’s feet, Terex was stopped as the heavy sphere that was BB-8 rolled over his feet with electric force. Terex was frozen at first, but slowly he backed up dazed. The cylinder still in his hand, Agent Terex prepared to throw it again, this time with far less gusto, but he paused at the sight beyond the observation window.

Above Ben Solo, the ceiling concaved and pouring from it were emerald vines belonging to the lab that was once a castle. In conscious moves, the vines wrapped around the man, holding him as a hundred arms, and coming forth a single vine dripping with an oil-like liquid stopped over Ben’s lips. Gently, the vine touched Ben’s mouth and so let loose that single drop.

“I don’t believe it.” Agent Terex groaned and pulled his mask away.

“How little you know of the Force,” Rey said before extending her hand and calling towards it both the disease and the cure from Terex’s person. This final move was enough to awake Terex into a full fury as he pulled for his final bomb. His hand never made it that fare. The vines, those same emerald vines that healed Ben, now sensed the danger Rey was in and rushing forward through the observation window they grabbed Terex through a waterfall of glass. Twisting around the man, they tightened and pulled Terex back and into the hole left in the ceiling.

“Ben!” Rey bounded over the broken glass and came to Ben’s side, her hand already under his head and helping to lift him up. Within him, the heaviness that once existed was dissipating slowly as an exhaled breath. Blinking his eyes open, Ben glanced up at Rey, at the light from the damaged ceiling above that sent light encircling her head and he smiled at the beauty of it. A hand daintily reached for the wound at Rey’s side, but instead, Rey took Ben’s hand.

“I’ll be fine. I promise.” She whispered, and standing up, Rey helped Ben to his feet before opening her hand to show what was in her palm.

“The cure.” Ben sighed and smiled again at Rey.

“Good work.” The woman’s eyes held with Ben’s and saw the reflection of someone just beginning to bloom.

“How did you know this place would help us?” Rey asked, stepping closer. Ben shrugged and looked away.

“This place was manipulated, made to turn into something against its nature. Instead of healing, it was made to destroy. All it needed was a chance to change.” Ben tasted his lips and the sweet oil that still rested there.

“I learned that from you.” The confession came with an open hand, which Rey refused in place of wrapping her arms around Ben’s neck and feeling the glow that existed there.

“Let’s get out of here, Rey.” Ben whispered.


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey and Ben take the cure to Finn.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey friends,   
> I've just finished the outline for the next Reylo fic I want to do and it's over 3,000 words, so I'm super excited to get it started. I'm going to take next week off and work on the story. Thank you so much for checking this story out! If you want a hint as to what the next story will be about check out the 12 labors of Hercules.

Nearly outside of Hoth’s atmosphere, the last of the ice melted from the Millennium Falcon’s exterior and not long after that Rey input the coordinates to the Resistance base Finn was currently working from.

“Birren.” Rey said the planet’s name with interest. 

“It’ll be nice to have the sun again.” Rey smiled at the idea of sunshine and perhaps some greenery to admire. Her smile soon faded when she considered the last time Ben saw anything boasting of life.

“You could…” She began, but already the idea sounded absurd.

“My time is coming.” Ben smiled from the co-pilot’s seat, rubbing the sore spot on his leg. 

“You risked your life.” Rey shook her head at the idea of the dirty looks, the glares, and under the breath comments, not to mention the punishment that would come should Ben show his face around the Resistance. Seething for a moment, the woman charged through the Falcon’s hyperspace protocol giving herself enough time to build up a frustration that could fuel a Star Destroyer. Flipping the last switch, the galaxy outside the Falcon turned blotchy and then blue with hyperspace travel. Chewing on her words, Rey saw any further conversation on the subject to be useless. Ben was right, his time was coming, but that time wasn’t now. Hand rubbing a spot on her scalp where glass cut her earlier, Rey edged for a question rather than more tiresome anger.

“Before the ceiling collapsed, …you were going to tell me something.” Rey tilted her head to find Ben’s torn gaze resting on her. A tremble, either from the passing fever or words too heavy to keep to himself, Ben mused of matters both delicate and swallowing.

“I’ve killed my father, my uncle gave his life, and my mother is dead. I do not have a family, except for what I find in you. I was a fool to think I could force you to the dark side, could force your hand into mine, but I’d be an even bigger fool if I didn’t want what you want. What we want.”

Taken aback, Rey managed a small smile and relent of her anger, before the galaxy outside revealed a green world blooming with plentiful lakes and rivers.

“You should get washed up. Chewie’s got a great sense of smell.” Ben warned and disappeared into the hallway, towards a cabin where he could hide for the time being.

Perhaps thankfully for Rey, the exchange of both disease and cure along with a short story about the First Order scientists who formed Command Echelon and from there developed the Damzell Project, went swiftly as Finn was in the middle of negotiations with Birren settlers.

“You mean, there’s a possibility there could be more projects Command Echelon worked on that we don’t know about?” Finn had asked, to which Rey answered with the promise she’d keep her ears open. Finn swore he’d have the disease appropriately disposed of while keeping the cure handy in case it was needed later.

“Won’t you stay?” Finn finally asked, when he saw the familiar urge to leave pushing in Rey’s eyes. The woman smiled deeply, embraced her dearest friend, and pulling away, she placed a beacon in his hand.

“If you need to find me.” She smiled a final time before looking down at BB-8, who had his optical lens focused on the planet around him, searching diligently for Poe.

“Would you like to stay here, BB-8?” The droid snapped his head back to Rey before ushering out a stiff answer.

“It’s okay, BB-8. I’m fine.” The droid lowered his head, chirping to himself until Rey patted him on the head.

“You can stay here, and when you want to come back, Finn knows how to get a hold of me.” Pacified, the droid rolled away, looking back a couple of times, before continuing his search for Poe.

Aboard the Millennium Falcon, Rey peeked in on Ben to find him passed out in one of the cabins. Removing a blanket from a stowaway, Rey covered the man and touched his cheek lightly before exiting for the cockpit. It would be a couple of hours later, when Rey and Ben were nearly in Tatooine’s atmosphere, that the woman remembered what Ben told her about the Falcon’s galley and the hidden space beneath its flooring. A smile on her face, Rey found the spot with ease and sticking the edge of a knife between the thin line keeping the hidden space closed and the flooring, she opened it. Darkness greeted her, but despite it, she placed her hand in the opening and pulled from it a stack of journals, Ben’s journals along with a calligraphy set wrapped in bantha leather, an old blaster handed down from Han to Ben, a loth-cat doll worn to nearly nothing and in the very back a cloth, baby’s clothing.

Holding the tiny outfit up, Rey brushed her fingers over the blue material, still soft after all these years.

“I can’t believe you were this small once,” Rey spoke to the man she knew to be standing behind her. Arms crossed, Ben leaned against the threshold trying to remember what he’d hidden away and what his father added to the pile.

“Only for a moment,” Ben smiled but lost the gesture to more consuming ideas. Crossing the galley, Ben sat across from Rey and took the loth-cat resting next to her.

“Mr. Snoke,” Ben remembered all too well the secret name he’d given his favorite toy. 

“Agent Terex…he asked me, if I were still Supreme Leader and the Damzell Project were presented to me, would I not accept its use.” Ben pressed his lips together in disgust.

“The answer is, I don’t know.”

“That’s not the right question, Ben. Would you use it now?” Rey asked, but she knew the answer. Reaching out a hand, she raised Ben’s chin.

“You’re no more like Snoke or Vader than I am like Palpatine. You’re good and kind.” Rey promised. Ben paused in thought before whispering, “Will you say that last part one more time?”

Removing the reminders of the past from her lap, Rey moved closer to the spot on the floor Ben claimed and kneeling before him she placed a hand on either side of his face. Rey’s palms somehow burning with heat despite the Falcon’s chill became an ease for the man they cradled. Ben remembered the longest days of his life, those spent with Snoke in cold isolation far from hope and even further from love. A turn of lips ascending somewhere between the places Ben had never been and the places he’d only seen in his dreams, the man believed without hearing everything Rey said.

“You’re good and kind,” Rey said once with her focus entirely on Ben’s wistful gaze. She repeated the four words as she embraced him, and again when she let her head rest on his shoulder and her hands drift up and down his back. She’d say the words once more when Ben was half-asleep, after returning to a darkened Tatooine with the promise of a new day quickly approaching.


End file.
